Sunday, May 12, 2013

I spent the day hearing how wonderful other people’s mothers are, and I’m sure they are.  It’s too bad they couldn’t have had my Mom so that they could have experienced what true excellence in motherhood is about.  My Mom was born on the farm in a small town in Iowa.  She was the youngest of 4, with 3 older brothers.  She attended school in a one-room schoolhouse as was common in rural Iowa at the time, and then attended high school at Griswold High.  Her mother was a true farm wife and mother.  She had a vegetable garden every year, canned and preserved her produce, cooked 3 meals a day for her family and whatever hired hands were there, raised chickens,  kept her house neat as a pin, was handy at keeping the house in repair and managing affairs on the farm while her husband was farming.  My Mom learned these skills and values well, and I remember her doing much of the same as I grew up.  She met my Dad and married him, and a two years and two babies later they packed up everything and moved to Phoenix, Arizona.  We lived in a humble unair-conditioned house for a few years and then in 1960, moved into a brand new home a few blocks away.  While I never understood that we were in a lower slice of the socioeconomic strata, she made our house a home.  She made curtains for all the windows, besides making most of the clothes for my 3 sisters and herself.  She cooked and cleaned and gardened and raised kids, and when the girls were all in school, started working in the cafeteria at a local elementary school.  Because of her superior example and the excellent education she provided for them, her children were all angels.  She moved from the cafeteria to the school office as an assistant secretary, and eventually became the school secretary when a new school was built where she worked until she retired.  She was active in the Methodist Church as we grew up and still is.  Her example helped all of us kids to develop a faith in God and Jesus Christ which we have each learned to express in different ways.  Now that her children are grown, each of us has profound love and respect for the unconditional love that she has shown us throughout our lives.  Preaching and scolding have their place, I suppose, but loving example has made her an iconic for each of us.  I can’t imagine that I could have been more fortunate.  Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.  I love you!