Silky for all, especially the needy

My mother makes this amazing lotion that she even found a great name for: Silky. She cooks up a bunch of different unguents and essential oils into a soothing balm for any skin. She was inspired I think by our search for lotion for our daughter's dry skin in our dry climate. We went through the gamut: from the Palmer's Cocoa Butter to the Eucerin to the mustard oil, from petroleum jelly to Un-Petroleum Jelly. When I could tolerate their scents, I liked the healing balms that contained ingredients such as calendula, vitamin e oil, and cocoa butter. And now my mother makes one with all this and more for us, which I have come to use, too. She even made my sweetie one she called "Silky Boy." She's so clever.

She really is. My mother learned to put a label on each jar that says what's in each batch (having regretted not doing so on one earlier and very successful batch). She also adds this little in-joke: "Bar code: Tom's Tavern." (Explanation: After the recent death of Tom Eldredge, his beloved Boulder burger joint closed after a long and slow-but-steady term as a fixture of downtown Boulder. I have fond memories of playing shuffleboard in there and having burgers when I was a kid, and fond memories of going there with my mother and daughter recently. I even got some other old Boulderites to go there for the first time a few months ago, and I'll bet they're glad they did before it was gone; now, they even have a story to tell other nostalgic Boulderites: "Oh, Tom's Tavern? Funny, but we never went there, in all those years it was there, until just before it closed.")

But what I wouldn't give to hire some people and rent a professional kitchen, so my ma could develop the formulas and make her Silky lotions in larger quantities. I like to slather it on after showers, before swimming, before doing any kind of rough work with my hands, and I put it on exposed skin before I ski or spend time outdoors. I don't think my skin has been this smooth since I hit puberty. And now that I've lost some weight and I've been getting fitter again, I am finding that it's helping with all that stretchiness a little, too. Not a lot, but a little. My mother has added a few people onto the short list of people for whom she will make it, such as her friends who have cancer and whose skin is being thoroughly altered by the chemotherapy. That lotion is such a gift. It's something my mother does that makes a big difference to us, and could make a big difference to a lot more people besides us. I'd love to help her make it for the athletes; and anyone else who likes healthy, soft skin (and doesn't like putting petroleum jelly on their bodies).