With the arrival of May Sunday, another holiday, a really special one, is coming up.
Here is an excerpt from the Internet to remind us to remember Mom a week from this Sunday.
God bless these special mothers,
God bless them every one…
For all the tears and heartache,
And for the special work they’ve done.
By Jill Lemming
Mothers are really special people. Most of them deserve a really special day – at least once a year.
Actually I think we should have a holiday at least once a month, but that’s another story…
Mothers are the central focus of every family. They are the one person you can count on even when everyone else seems to be against you, and the one person who truly believes in you – no matter what.
My mom, bless her memory, was that kind of mother. She worked full-time to support us, but she still managed to find time to make me clothes and toys when there wasn’t enough money to buy new things. She fixed my favorite foods and she always made time for me.
All this while she worked six days a week in a store and uncounted more hours at home.
She was always proud of me and embarrassingly enough, made sure to tell everyone who would listen just how great (and spoiled) that I was.
If I needed money for school, she would go without to make sure I had it. I always knew we were poor, but because of her, I never really felt it.
When I got married, there wasn’t much money for a wedding. So, Mom and I went shopping for some beautiful material and she spent months making me a one-of-a-kind white velvet and embroidered satin wedding dress, and velvet and satin dresses for all three of my bridesmaids as well. Then she even found time to make a “going away outfit” for my honeymoon and her own “Mother of the bride outfit as well.
When I was all grown up with youngsters of my own, she was my sounding board when being a parent seemed to be an impossible job and always wanted to help out when she could, even if it was a long- distance call.
She was a really wonderful “grandma” to all three of my little ones, my two brothers’ eleven kids and everyone else who happened along, giving all of them the same special treatment and loads of home-made, one-of-a-kind presents for Christmases and birthdays, and sometimes just because…
The four daughters of my brother Jim still talk about the many, many fabulous barbie outfits she made for their dolls one Christmas. One of my absolutely best holidays ever centered around a pajama bag doll she stuffed with all of the neat stuff a very young teen would love…and some pretty snazzy pjs of course. She made quilts for just about every grandson in the family another year, and one for their parents as well. I passed along a more than 5,000-piece hand-made quilt she made for me years ago to her oldest granddaughter when we downsized in 2020, and passed her well-used treadle sewing machine to another granddaughter.
All of her grandkids are grown now, most grandparents themselves, and she has been gone for many years, but when we all get together, we still talk about those special times – what a character she was, her homemade pies, and delicious meals, the lullabies she sang to the babies, berry picking expeditions, long walks in the woods and how much fun she was just to be around.
She supported and believed in all of us – kids and grandkids and even great grandchildren. When I wanted to buy the newspaper, she had no doubts about it at all. She knew I could do it even when I didn’t.
She was my Mom. She was my friend.
Mom got Alzheimer’s in her middle 70s. Slowly the family watched her essence and personality slip away until, left with nothing, she died in 1993.
I still miss her. I just wish I had told her what she meant to me more often than I did.
With that in mind, I am wishing all of the wonderful mothers in this now gigantic family she founded a very, very happy Mother’s Day.
