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My mother's coat
My mother’s coat
My mother’s coat is white as snow. It gets dirty and it creases all the time, that she must wash it almost everyday to have it clean and bright.
It’s long enough to be a dress and hot as a jumper, what a pain must it be for her to use it in summer!
She says it’s not a uniform, but a precious piece of clothing. I think it’s nothing but a security measure, and an ugly one, but there must be a reason for it to be that important to my mother.
Perhaps it’s about the weather, the cold environment at her surroundings that make it essential. Or maybe it’s the power it represents in her work’s hierarchy.
I used to think it was for scaring, it certainly did so when I was little. I remember walking with her to work and seeing all this people wearing coats, white as snow and long as gowns. I would feel so uncomfortable that I’d cry and make my mother take me somewhere else.
While growing up I used to wonder what it was about that coat that made me feel so scared and troubled. Surely it’s the color, or lack of it… the coat it’s just too white.
No, perhaps it was the length. Me being as little as I was could easily feel scared by something that tall. But I’m not so sure about that either.
The thing is that my mother’s coat used to scare me a lot; it represented her work place filled with sickness and death. And for a child, it made me wonder what could my mom see in that coat that made it so special.
I feel dumb now, for being scared of a coat even if it’s still white and long. I’m also taller and that coat is not as white as it used to be, if I must say.
Thinking now, I can finally see the importance of the coat. Of course it’s no its physical appearance but what it represents which wasn’t sickness and death at all, but health and life to all: to patients, to doctors, to people in general.
My mother’s coat was about making life better to all human beings, about research, about learning and mostly about happiness.
I also realized, my mother really loves her job. And I don’t hate that coat as much as I did before. Being honest, I can even say that I’ve grown prone to it.
I’m going to wear a white coat too, hopefully as white and long as my mother’s medical coat.
