Mom's Birthday

Last night I began to think of my mother. Yesterday was her birthday. She has been gone for over 20 years, but I still think of her often.She was certainly the most important woman in my wife until I got married. She wasn't perfect -- in fact, she had some major failings, but she was a good mother. She loved me and let me know it.

She became a single mom at the age of 40. She really hadn't worked outside of the home since she married my father. This was a difficult transition. She had no real job experience. She finally was hired by our church to be the pastor's secretary. Here she really did well. The pastors loved her and the people did too. She began to blossom.

She always had a lot of friends -- women of her age group that were either divorced or widowed. I grew up around women. If this wasn't enough, my grandmother came out to live with us (and help take care of me). I was the only male in a house always filled with females. When I was in college, my mother became the sponsor of the Junior High Girls group -- so I would come home to find the house full of Junior High girls. I certainly wasn't interested in any of these little girls -- but, come to think of it -- I married one of those girls after she grew up.

Why do I miss my mother? She gave me love. She gave me affirmation. She gave me confidence. I owe her a lot. She sacrificed so that I could have what she never did have. She encouraged me to receive my education -- and made me stick to it. I remember coming home during my sophomore year saying that I was through. I was tired of being broke. "I can't afford it, so I'll just quit and get a job." My mother grabbed me by the shoulders and said, "On your knees. We are going to pray." I was mortified, but one doesn't argue with Mom when she is in that mood. We prayed. She told me to go back to school. I did. The following week I receive a call from an attorney that I didn't know asking me to come to his office. It seemed that he administered a trust for needy college kids and he had heard about me. How? I don't know, but I suspect my mother's prayers had something to do with it. The upshot is that I received a nice check every month until I went into the Navy. Mother was always right.

I miss my mother.