Donuts and My Sin

What does your mother smell like? Smell is one of the most primal of our senses capable of reviving intense memories and emotions.

My mother, gone now 5 years, smelled of cake donuts and My Sin perfume.

When I was kid, she worked for a large Income Tax preparation company during tax season. The rest of the year, she was a stay at home mom. During tax season, she'd go by a local bakery/restaurant and pick up scrambled egg and cheese biscuits for herself and her co-workers a couple times a week. That's where the smell of cake donuts came from. The bakery had the best cake donuts you have ever had but it was the smell that permeated your clothing.

She'd come home from work and hug me and ask me about my day and I would smell that combination of perfume and donuts and feel completely loved and cared for.

To this day, if I smell either of those scents, I instantly think of my mother.

How do you smell to your kids? I hope Phoebe remembers me from the Dial soap I use and the lemon verbena cologne I wear.

What does your mother smell like and what do you as a parent smell like?

PS. Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there.