Reflections on Mothers' Day

Happy Mothers' Day. I hope you all have a wonderful day and are fortunate enough to share it with your mother. Mothers' Day brings both joy and sadness for me. I have the joy of being a mother although my two girls are hundreds of miles away. One lives in Baltimore and the other in Pittsburgh. I have a touch of sadness that my mother is no longer with us, but I have the joy of knowing she is in heaven. And I have happy, happy memories of my mother.

One of my earliest memories is of my mother reading to me before bedtime. I loved the book, Old Bones the Wonder Horse. Little incidents touch my heart. Like the time she was the only mother who showed up for the meeting with my Brownie Scout leaders. She loved to eat cheese and was always on a diet. She taught me how to bake and let me make cakes, cookies and pies. She loved to garden, especially flowers. As I look at my life, I see much of my mother in me.

She was widowed when she was fifty-four. Only my youngest brother was still at home. She spent the next ten years mothering a whole crew of young people who attended her church and some who rented her upstairs apartment.

My mother was a quiet woman, and taking care of her family was her biggest joy. There were four of us kids. I was the oldest and had three younger brothers. When my brothers were all taller than Mom, they began to call her "little mother." I never had a chance to ask her whether she liked that nickname. After I went away to college, I didn't live close to my mother again. She lived in Spokane, Washington, and I got a teaching job in Cincinnait, Ohio, where I met my husband. We moved to Atlanta when my girls were three and four. The following year my mother died when she was struck by a car while she was crossing the street. She was only sixty-four.

I miss my mom, especially on a day like today, but the wonderful memories carry me through. I hope someday my girls will look back with fond memories of me. We are going to be making memories next weekend when my younger daughter gets married. Hopefully, I can look foward to being a grandmother on Mothers' Day in a few years.

So today I'll remember my mother and savor being a mother and celebrate with my mother-in-law. Happy Mothers' Day again.

posted by Merrillee @ 6:29 AM