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THANKS MOM FOR EVERYTHING
Saturday morning we often drop into MacDonald’s for a coffee and muffin Recently a feisty elderly women, Emma, dressed in a thin bare coat and rain hat with a grocery cart in tow shuffled past the servers. She looked over my shoulder and asked me: if I had the Horoscope section of the news paper?
Before going grocery shopping she told me that had to know the predictions for her family who were coming home for the week-end She had forgotten her spectacles and I was chosen to read to her the predictions for those were born under the signs of Virgo and Leo.
We gave her a ride to the super market to purchase her groceries. Emma relied on her old age pension cheque but she had enough money to pay for some broth to make her children’s favourite chicken soup.
Sunday is Mother’s Day and Emma, like countless other millions of women, will be taking care of her "kids". The recipe for being a mother is simple. Two cups of nurturing, three pounds of loving, a pinch of worry and tons of guilt are the pre-requisites to being a successful mom. Many years of taking care of the family supercedes individual needs. Exotic expensive vacations and shopping trips for the latest fashion takes a back seat to the needs of the children’s post secondary education. Dreaming of her children’s success is paramount. "My son/daughter the doctor, lawyer, teacher or carpenter" is her pride & joy.
I have always envied the bonding that mothers have with their children. The nine months of pregnancy brings forth an intimacy that we men can not quite comprehend. My wife, Ella worked afternoons when our children were young leaving me to take on the dual role of Mommy/Daddy when I left my teaching job. I was probably the only man in the grocery store who would turn around when my daughter would yell, " Hey Mom".
I am a grown man with two children/grandchildren and a wife of my own but I still want to thank my Mom for being there for me. She gave me her love and affection and unswerving support and for this I am for ever grateful. I have to trust God to convey my thanks to her. She passed away many years ago.
I have had the good fortune to marry a like minded women who is the mother of my children. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Young men marry their mothers and women seek out men that have similar attributes to their fathers.
In todays busy world our children often have moved far away with little thought of home. Too often parents can be forgotten. A wise man taught me the new realities of the world. A mother and father can feed and care for their six kids but rarely do the children have the time, finances or inclination to care for their parents.
The Amish people have an interesting tradition: the daughters marry and live on farms close to home and the youngest son inherits the family homestead. Junior also has the responsibility to support and care for his ageing parents.
Please take the time to thank your mom this Sunday May 10th. A card, phone call or dinner at her favourite restaurant along with a small bouquet of flowers is a small price to pay for all that your mom has done for you. She gave you life.
Len Lesser