My Beautiful Mother

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My Mom at age 25 in 1942

I wrote the following 4 years ago but the words and the love are there forever.

Abraham Lincoln said it so sweetly, “All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother.”

All mothers are just that even if you don’t think so at the time. I had the sweetest of mothers. I never heard her say anything unkind about anyone except perhaps one time. I guess that’s why I remember it; it was so rare. A neighbor was bugging the Board of Directors and she said, “She was always a pain in the ass.” Other than that, she accepted people the way they were in spite of the flaws and personality quirks that we all have from time to time and in spite of our difference of opinions. She always saw the “good” and did not dwell on the “bad.”

My Mom was very smart. She never worried about the future and always told me that I would be okay. She assessed her children honestly and never bored her friends to death by bragging about them. She knew her children were not the most beautiful, not the smartest, not the most clever but she knew what her kids were all about and of what they were capable. She knew we had good hearts even if we kept our deeds or feelings to ourselves. She also knew that we loved and respected her.

Mothers always want what is best for us even when we make these dreadful mistakes: spouses, job choices, spending money on that new car that was unnecessary, spoiling our kids, etc. They have wisdom that we don’t appreciate until years later after we have lived a little, or after they are gone, we come to realize how perfect our mothers were…how right they were, not some of the time but all of the time and how we wished that we had actually listened.

I miss my Mom and think of her every day and wish that she was still here, to talk to and to tell her how much she is loved. For all of you who still have your mothers, cherish them. For all of you whose moms have passed, be blessed in their sweet memory today and every day.

Happy Mother’s Day--to mothers to be and mothers who were.