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It is that
time of year to "officially" honor our mothers, so I would like to
say a few things about mine. My mother was a June Cleaver, or for the younger
group, a Mrs. Brady (darn if I can remember her first name, but you know
of whom I speak.) Mother was a stay at home mom. She tended the needs of
our family with much love. She was a woman of few words, absolutely adored
my father and was tremendously grateful for her family, especially her children.
She could make a meal from absolutely nothing but flour, eggs and milk, and
clothes from the material sacks that held cooking flour; she was amazingly
resourceful.
My mother had a difficult life growing up;
it was a time when our country was rebounding from the Great depression and her
family struggled to make ends meet. Her mother, my beloved Granny, was a
strong, outspoken woman who was the epitome of a hard worker. Granny was a “marked
woman,” in that she was divorced. Despite being in an abusive relationship, working
outside the home when her husband couldn’t because of his drinking, she was
viewed as “less than” a married woman. Furthermore, back then, women truly made
a fraction of the wages a man made despite doing the same job. So, my mother
and two of her three brothers spent several years in an orphanage.
From the
events of her childhood, my mother was determined to provide the type of home
for her family that her heart ached to have experienced. And, that is precisely
what my mother did. She married, had five children, used the skills of living
within the means you are given and showered her children with abundant love.
Economically, we were a poor family, and yet, we were rich with the
knowing we were loved above all things of this world. We were also taught what
it meant to be loved by a Heavenly Father and to know we were absolutely never
alone. It is from that place of unconditional love, the security of knowing
that everything we needed would be provided, that my mother taught me how to
love so deeply.
For that,
and a hundred other beautiful things I learned from my mother and my Granny, I celebrate
the strength and wisdom in action of a mother’s unconditional love. With
deepest respect, I honor my mother, Granny and all women who hold the position
of “Mother!”