In my early 20’s I had moved to NY from California to pursue my career in fashion. My mom was the person who actually pushed me to go to NY to really give my career a strong start but she was hoping I’d come back to Calif after a couple of years of experience.

During those early, early years I would travel overseas every two months and spend about 5 weeks in India and Hong Kong while the newest collection took shape. I was young, single and didn’t mind being away from my NYC apartment and friends for 5 weeks at a time since I knew this was a fantastic chance for me to learn my craft.

When I returned home from one of these trips I peeked up at my apartment window from my cab and saw curtains in the window. I thought, oh no, my landlord hasn’t seen me for over a month and must’ve gotten new tenants because those weren’t my curtains — I didn’t have curtains — I didn’t make enough money to decorate my apartment and lived really frugally.

I got out of the cab and gingerly put my key in the door and it opened the door! I walked in and saw a simple dining room table, chairs, and cozy floor pillows on the livingroom floor. Beautiful homemade curtains were on the windows. In the kitchen were canisters with cookies and snacks. I thought, why would my key work if a new tenant now lived here? Then I saw a little angel doll hanging from the ceiling light with a note. The angel doll and note were from my mom. She and my dad had flown from California to surprise me not knowing I was on a business trip. When they saw how empty my apartment and kitchen cabinets were, they set out to furnish it enough for me to be comfortable, including the snacks and cans of soup. They also filled the freezer with chicken and steaks. My mom’s note said they were so proud of me for wanting to hone my career but they were sad that I was living so barely without any signs of comfort. To be honest I was so young and hungry to learn everything about designing clothes that I hardly noticed how bare to the bones I was living. But that first night home in my newly decorated apartment I cried myself to sleep with happiness that my mom and dad loved me so much to spend their week in NY sewing pillows and curtains and filling my beat up kitchen with food and love, so much love. I ended up staying in NY for another 16 years, loving every minute.

And wouldn’t you know it, when it was my younger sister’s time to move into her first apartment my other sister and I surprised her, too, with furniture and a stocked kitchen. Family is family!