Hmm, what is just a general gift I can give. This is a pretty light-hearted, so I just want to be remembered as a nice guy who was cool and thoughtful.
See, but general gifts
aren't thoughtful - they're general.
The best gifts are the ones that
did require thought, that show you've listened, that you care, that you're attentive to the things that they like and want. Those mean a lot more. Obviously this circumstance probably makes this difficult, since I assume you don't know her that well.
But I think it's useful just for life in general. The best gifts aren't necessarily
nice or fancy or expensive.
Storytime!
One of the best gifts I ever gave cost me just about nothing. My mom had a very stressful winter last year. A lot of things with her work weren't going as well as she would have liked, and she was feeling increasing pressure to do more and more at her job (even if it is pretty much volunteer work). It didn't help that she was having trouble with both her old and new laptops, since the old one was a cheapo even 4 or 5 years ago when she got it, and she still had an abundance of photos (much of it tied to outdated photo software) on there that she wanted to do things with. I chatted with her in early December about a bunch of this. When Christmas stuff came up just before I was about to leave, I asked what she wanted.
She sighed, tired, and said, "Really, just having you around would really help. I just feel like I've lost my marbles, these last few months." She laughed a bit. "I guess if you could help with my laptop, that'd be great. That can be your Christmas present this year."
I smiled and agreed, gave her a hug, and went home.
I stayed with my parents for Christmastime, and helped my mom with her laptop. But I did get her another present. I put it in an old jewelry box, probably held a necklace at one point, so it was fairly large. Christmas day comes, and after we go through a good few presents, some of the extended family present (my mom's side, for once, since they live out in Colorado), she gets to mine.
"I know I said my present would be tech support," I said, "But I wanted to get you something extra."
She smiled, and opened it up, paused for a moment, and then burst into laughter. There were a good number of confused smiles in the room. Mom laughed until she cried, struggling to explain why to the rest of the family. It'd been too long since I heard her laugh like that.
I got her a little bag of marbles.