My mother left my sister and I with a very important lesson for life – shopping is crucial. My brother in law calls it the Libby Miller Retail Therapy. Many of us have heard the phrase “when the going get tough, the tough get…” Well with my mom, and my sister, and myself, we get shopping. I have found over the years that my personal shopping arena has expanded, and I can get the benefits of this form of therapy from purchases ranging from clothes to kitchen hardware and everything in between.

You may ask, can a person practice the Libby Miller Retail Therapy on the Internet or only in stores. Well, my mother died before she ever really entered the age of Internet shopping. However, I have fully embraced this phenomenon. Shopping without ever leaving the house, without ever getting out of my pjs – this is the life.

Nonetheless, my verdict is that internet shopping is good when you have small kids and no time to go to many stores, or you know just what you want and do not feel like going out in the cold or rain. But it falls short in performing the results desired from a Libby Miller Retail Therapy experience. For that you need the stores, the atmosphere, the wandering about. You need the thrill of the find, the excitement from the bags of purchases, the immediate gratification of bringing your new treasures home and spreading them out on your bed. That’s what the Libby Miller Retail Therapy is all about – escaping, spending money and feeling good.

Even when my mother was sick we shopped all the time. Once, when she could not walk, we went to her favorite store, Loehmans, and I sat her in a prime location in her wheel chair and brought her tons of clothes from all over and we laughed and bought and forgot for a while that we were so scared. Another example of how to use this therapy when faced with one of life’s many struggles; The day before my mother died, the nurses sent my sister and I out because they said we needed a break, to have some fun. We got our nails done and went shopping. I bought a dress, which to this day I refer to as the dress I bought right before my mom died. Most of this trip I cried, but those few moments when I saw the dress, tried it on and bought it, I felt a thrill, I forgot that my world was about to fall apart. I wore that dress the day my mother died, and in some weird and twisted way, I can now say, that she must be proud that to her very last breath she was able to instill in me the true healing powers of shopping.

Category: Stories | by Jennifer