On the eve of the day that honors so many brave and influential women...I sit and think about my own mother. Wow, what an individual! She was all that AND the bag of chips. I can't think of any moment in my life that she wasn't (or isn't) there...either teaching, leading, comforting, watching...or just sitting, humming her sweet song.
My mother.
...she was and is a mother first and foremost. Aside from the cooking, cleaning and laundering for us...if we were sick, she'd make it better. Whether it was forcing that awful, pink bubble-licious medicine down our throats or simply rocking us in her chair. If we were bad...oh, we'd get our share...although, I must admit, we'd learned rather quickly that she'd stop spanking us when we'd start crying...then she'd find us under the bed giggling and promise with finger shaking "You just wait 'til your daddy gets home!" But, in the end (no pun intended), we learned from our disciplines just as they hoped we would.
If we ever had a loose tooth...'Mama,' as I call her...would get that sucker right out of our mouth whether it was really loose or not! She'd say "Let me see..." then with one quick motion...she'd have that tooth up in the air pinched between her forefinger and her thumb. It wouldn't hurt us though, it would just save us from the nervous anticipation of actually having to pull our own tooth.
My mother...before we could drive, hauled us everywhere in that old rickety station wagon and later in the infamous big, ol' brown Suburban. And even though there were four of us...she managed to spread her time out and be in the bleachers to see all our ball playing, our cheerleading, our drum tapping, our horn-tootin', our piano banging, our baton twirling, our proms, our dances, our follies, our parades, our cow-showing, our 4-Hing, our successes.. and even our failures. She was there cheering us on, and not because she had to...because she wanted to.
Mama never forced us to do anything, just encouraged us along the way to do and be the best we could. And in the off chance we were headed for a disaster, Mama would in an ever so politely and motherly fashion tell us "don't you want to do something other than play the clarinet? you sound like a sick goose!" (and that was AFTER a year of lessons!!)
My mother...she is a teacher. She taught us how to sew, to use our imaginations, to be creative, how to cook and how to bake, to stand up straight and walk with a book on our head. ;) Mama taught us to love, to care, to give and to nurture all by her own Christian example. and to think about it, this whole time, she was also teaching us to be good mothers! When not teaching her own children, she was teaching others...Physics, Chemistry, American History, Spanish and Bible. Yep...pretty smart lady!...
She is a leader...in her spare time, she was my Girl Scout leader, my 4-H leader, and even led me and the "Magnolia Cloggers" to toe-stomping excellence...and still until this day, she continues her leadership of others with so much grace and love.
Mama now has become "Gamma" or "Gammy" or "GaGa" (depending on what child you come across) and is instilling everything she instilled into us into her grandchildren. It's like deja vu!
As I think about her and everything she has done...I hope that I can be half the mother she is to me and my sisters. "Mama" is definitely the supermom of her time...and I can see her with a big red cape flapping in the wind, and her head topped with a shining tiara.
I love you Mama! Happy Mother's Day!
Mama bringing me home from the hospital. June 1977.
Me and my 'Mama'. 1977.
Mama made all these dolls for us one Christmas! 1981
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