September 22, 2026, the 265th day of 2026
Mom's Birthday
My mom has been gone 15 years now. Today is her birthday and I cannot help thinking about her, as a girl, a young woman, a young wife, a you... View MoreSeptember 22, 2026, the 265th day of 2026
Mom's Birthday
My mom has been gone 15 years now. Today is her birthday and I cannot help thinking about her, as a girl, a young woman, a young wife, a young mother and a young grandmother.
When I look back, I really am amazed at what she managed.
Mom's mom had to work because of her divorce and did extra work in the place they lived, so they could have their rent reduced. But she missed her mom, and didn't like that she had to be away so long, so she wanted to be the kind of mom who was there for her children. And that took a lot of work.
Mom had 9 children, starting when she was 17. Her last child was born in her mid 30's. When I look back, now, it fills me with more wonder than ever before.
She taught us all the time, even when we didn't realize. And sometimes she taught us by her own mistakes telling us why some choices were bad and not to make them.
Others we did not hear the stories to until we were adults. Before that she would say, "do as I say, don't do as I do". She never claimed to know it all. She never claimes to be perfect. She only claimed to be our mom.
She did not have a housekeeper or a nanny. She did not send us off to daycare. She wanted to raise us. She wanted to be a part of our lives.
We helped in little ways, that we thought were bigger ways when we were children. But really she took most upon herself. As children we just expected that. I don't think we realized how amazing it was.
But when preparing for guests and holidays we would all scurry about doing this task or that.
I really loved when she waxed our large hardwood floors, because we would put on thick socks and skate about "buffing" them.
We had all kinds of music playing in the background, opera to rock, ballet to ballads. She would laugh and say it was to keep down our noise, but it filled us with the love of music, all kinds of music.
Mom loved to dance and had wanted to be a dancer. If they were a class we would share , she would take us with her. Or if they were dance classes with other children, she encouraged us so we could learn poise, movements, balance and flexibility.
She also loved to write and I would have loved to have had more of our family history from her perspective. I only got a small part of her writing published when I added a section of it to my Pathways book.
Mom loved mystery books, movies and television shows. She also loved Spencer and Tracy, and J ohn Wayne and Maureen O'Hara movies especially. I loved watching them with her when she would actually sit down long enough to do so.
Throughout our childhood she taught us to be respectful of others, to consider others' time as important, not to be late, not to make people unduly worry, not to be inconsiderate.
She taught us to take care of putting our dishes in the sink, but she usually was the one who washed them. We would take over for Mother's Day and her birthdays, but those we exceptions.
She taught us to keep our rooms clean and put the dirty clothes in the laundry shoot or the hamper, but she washed those clothes, dried them, ironed them as needed and folded them for us to put away.
She taught us to look out for one another and to keep an eye on the younger ones, so we became observant and on the lookout for dangers that could happen, that were not obvious. Even the younger ones had mom's grandchildren coming as they were growing up.
Sometimes these lessons were obvious, about the dangers of leaving the handle of a pan pointing into the room where it could be bumped or a child could grab it and pull the hot food down upon themselves.
Or the danger of a hot drink being left unattended, within reach of a child.
Not only "don't talk to strangers", but why. The danger of going off with strangers, or how bad people may entice children with candy, puppies, kittens etc.
There is really too much to cover that i find she had an impact on. Even the things I did differently she encouraged, as she said that each of us are free to live the way we want to when we leave home.
I thank God for my mom and the family He put me into!
Stay strong! Remembering the youth and humanity of your mom will make your memories more enjoyable.
NAN
