“Time passes quickly but one thing always lasts – the love and support found in you.” —Catherine Pulsifer
Tomorrow is my mother’s birthday. She’s been celebrating in heaven for over ten years now. Seems hard to think about her being gone that long in some ways. In other ways, it seems forever.
She was my world when I was the little girl following after her in the picture above. She was always there for me. I was the third daughter, and I’m sure she and my dad were hoping for a boy. But they got me. Mom never acted as if she wanted anyone else. She was always ready to cheer me on in whatever I did.
“Always my mother; forever my friend.” —Unknown
She was my mom first. She made sure I knew how to behave and how to work to help the family. She was always ready to support me in school or in whatever I did. She was the president of the PTA. She was a leader in 4-H when I was a 4-H member. She was there to hold my hand when I was sick.
When I married way too young, she stood beside me. When I had a baby at a young age and then another before the first one was two, she was there to help me figure out how to be a mom.
I had already experienced having a great mom myself and she helped me try to follow in her footsteps. She was a loving granny, always ready to love my children unconditionally and to be there for them the way she always was for me.
“A mother’s hug lasts long after she lets go.” —Unknown
When I started writing stories, she thought every one of them was the best ever. She was my biggest cheerleader.
Later, when her memory began to fail, it was so very difficult for her and for us, her daughters. She had always been so strong. Now we needed to be strong for her. And we were even as things got harder and harder. But I always knew the love was still there even on those days when she wasn’t sure who this adult me was because she still thought she was either a young girl or a young wife and mother.
Life can throw us some curves, but life can also give us blessings. My mother was one of my sweetest blessings.
So happy birthday, Mom. Wish I could cook you another birthday dinner and your favorite dessert. Maybe an angel food cake, but for certain, I would have never been able to cook that dessert as good as you could when you made it from scratch and piled that 7 minute frosting on it. You were the best.
“You’re always with me, like a handprint on my heart.” —Unknown
Comments 1
This is beautiful, what a blessing you mom was. Both my parents are gone now, and it has been one of the hardest things I have faced. My dad’s birthday was last week. Like you, it is hard to believe my parents have been gone so long, dad 18 years and mom 10 years this April. Even now, I sometimes catch myself thinking, “I need to tell mom that…” I wish my grandchildren would have had the chance to know them. Blessings.