Love in small gestures

My mother has always known how to take care of me, even from a distance. From a midday phone call to a lovingly sent package of oranges. Today, on Mother’s Day, I reflect on those invisible gifts that sustain us and how, through L’atelierme, I try to give back a little of that infinite love.

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25 May 2025

Extrait de painting: Les trois âges de la femme (1905) Gustav Klimt

1 · To my mother

My mother calls me on a winter Wednesday at 1:40 p.m. I imagine her sitting in her car without getting out, calling me because she misses me while she kills time before starting her shift at the factory. I miss her.

I like to tell her everything now, I suppose because I’m 30 and she’s 60, and it’s obvious there’s nothing to hide.

I imagine my mother sitting in the car, in her last months before early retirement, trying to understand my problems and why I can’t come home soon.

At 1:55 p.m. she hangs up because she might end up late. She walks quickly the few meters to the entrance and, while punching in, she frets that she hasn’t understood anything I’m telling her.

That night my mother sends 15kg of oranges to Paris because it’s the only thing she can do to help me and, at least, prevent me from getting sick.

2. Today is Mother’s Day

Today is Mother’s Day, and I remember that call. I think about what would become of me without those gestures of infinite love from my mother. I think about how accustomed I am to receiving that love and how rarely I realize how fortunate I am.

2.1. Gifts from my mother

My mother gave me my first cloth napkins when I moved to Paris at 25. We had always used them at home. They were red and white checkered, and we each had our own napkin rings. For me, this was a normality that I believed was universal.

2.2 · Why we created L’atelierme

One of the reasons Empar and I created L’atelierme was to be able to share our reality with others. For us, like my mother, the table napkin symbolizes togetherness, the return to a thoughtful and environmentally responsible lifestyle. Cloth napkins preserve the touch and the present moment.

My mother has been wanting to renew those old family napkins for at least a year and has been patiently waiting for us to launch the brand. “I want to be the first to buy from you,” she tells me every time we talk about L’atelierme.

Today is the most special Mother’s Day of my life. Today I find myself preparing the package of napkins and tablecloth that I am going to give to my mother. In a way, I want to give back some of the love she gives me. I want her to be the first to take care of “our daughters,” and for them to take care of her.

To my mother, who takes care of me even from a distance and who saves me with her oranges and her voice.

By María Palazón

Photo: María Palazón