Friday, October 11, 2013

My Mom

My mom celebrated her birthday last week.  We didn't get to see her so we gave her a call and everyone took turns wishing her a Happy Birthday.

I love my mom.  She has nurtured me and taught me.  I don't think I have ever clearly expressed to her how I truly admire her.  Today I want to change that by paying tribute to the woman that helped shape me into the woman I am.  She has probably been the single most influential person in my life; not just because she is my mom, but because of the woman she is.

My mom was raised in a family that had little more than each other.  She was only 11 when her dad was killed in a car/train accident.  At 18 she married my dad and became a mom the following year.  Together my parents have lived in four countries and travelled across Canada, through much of the United States and visited countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. 

Living through a tornado was one of many events that seriously impacted her life.  My parents first home and a lot of their belongings were destroyed when the tornado picked up the house and moved it from its foundation.  My mom was in the house with her mom, her younger sister and brother, and her own two baby boys when it struck.

Nurturing and caring for others is who my mom is.  She has raised four of her own children, fostered children and has had a hand in raising other children including some of her grandchildren.  Our home was always open for us to invite our friends over for meals, sleepovers, movie nights and some of them even moved in for awhile. Over the years there were also a variety of animals she helped rescue, hand-raise, keep as pets or had on the farm. 

My mom knows what it is to love and be loved.  She knows how to care for others and celebrate the joys of family and life.  She knows what it is to say good-bye to parents and grandchildren.  She knows what it is to watch a grandchild fight a life-threatening disease and to watch her children suffer the loss of their children.
 
What I have written here are just some of the snippets from her life.  But it is from all of this rich life experience that my mom has been shaped into the woman she is.  She is dependable, resilient, bold, kind, loving, helpful, hard-working, gentle and caring.  As we were growing up she could always be counted on to listen to our worries, gave us space to make our own decisions and help when we asked for it.  She is loyal and proud of each one of us.

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This saying is so true for me.  I hear her in how I talk, the words I choose and how I parent my boys.  Sometimes it makes me flinch; always it makes me smile.  I am pleased that I can claim to be a little like the strong, courageous woman she is.  And I hope that someday my boys will be able to say that I, too, am a mom they are proud of.

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