Although this entry is being published today, I actually wrote it one year ago today after having seen these most beautiful words of a friend of mine in tribute to both candy corn and her mother:
People hate on candy corn. It seems like I’m one of few who likes it… besides my mom and Josilyn. Candy corn is also something | hold near to my heart, and I’ll tell you why. Josilyn was 2 months shy of her second birthday when her MeMe, my mom, passed away. When Josilyn was about 6 months old my mom gave her a taste of candy corn. It became their thing. My mom kept candy corn year round and they’d eat it all the time. When my mom passed I was trying to think of something special to have at her memorial from Josilyn. I was frustrated because nothing was special enough, and I was running out of time. The day before the service I’d been running around crazy and when I got home I was just done. Then I saw Josilyn, she was sitting at the table with my niece, putting pieces of candy corn in a vase we’d been using to make arrangements with. That was it. I took her to the garden and she picked some daffodils. We put them in the vase and she filled it with the candy corn. Then we added a butterfly. She couldn’t write but I let her scribble on the card, which is signed from her “pretty girl”, cause that’s what mom called her. I still have it, five and a half years later. So anyway, you’ll never find me hating on candy corn. Plus I actually like eating it lol
… meanwhile, while combing the internet for the perfect picture of candy corn for this post today, I stumbled upon the coolest article ever about the history of candy corn:
Candy corn might be the most controversial Halloween candy. In our experience, people either love it or hate it—and we’re firmly in the “love it” category. We’re not the only ones eating candy corn by the handful: The National Retail Federation estimated that in 2019, 95% of holiday shoppers stocked up on the tri-color treat. Not to mention, it’s consistently the most popular Halloween candy in multiple states.
(“The History of Halloween Candy Corn: A Tasty Favorite for Decades“)
The bottom line is this:
It’s not what we do with all the bittersweet, beautiful, and tragic bits and pieces of our life that defines either us or the “success” of how they land with the people in who are listening to us. It’s what others do with our stories and how they’re inspired to find a way to see all the Light lurking beneath the darkness and the beauty in things that might otherwise be considered “gross” … like CANDY CORN!
For the record, I love you, Christy Gail, and am so thankful for you and how your halo crossed paths with mine! If someone would have told me back in 2020 that the crazy little Fucker we both love about as much as I despise candy corn would be the catalyst that “bits and pieced” us together, I’d have laughed! But hey, what do I know, right? Enjoy your candle, by the way, and just “pretend” it’s nestled snuggly in the masterpiece of a handmade candy corn bowl you were supposed to be getting in the mail this week when you light it and think of your beautiful momma! As for me? I’ll be spending this “day of the candy corn” which is also my sixth anniversary without Zack being ever so powerfully graceful and GRATEFUL for the grief of losing him … because … it means I “got” to ever love him in the first place.
The Diary Of My Perfection 