My mom has breast cancer, again. She is a
strong woman, the strongest woman I know. She has beaten cancer once, and
is back fighting again. She is holding her own in this fight, through prayer
and sheer will she is still feeling very healthy and I am so thankful. I
am not the medical expert of the family, but from what I know, since the cancer
has come back, there is no way to fully cure it this time. She has had many good scans in a row now,
another one just the other day, showing no growth.
Recently a friend of mine gave me this picture
of my mother, it is probably 20-25 years old. I really like this one
because I feel like it is a picture of her in her element. She loves to
be outside, especially at the beach. She is relaxed and contemplative.
It was probably a week of camping at the beach, so she was probably quite busy
that day wrangling kids, feeding them, watching them, and here she is at the
end of the day, probably just finished giving some pushes on the swings,
getting ready to watch the sun set. Now that I am a mom, I can more fully
appreciate what the end of that day might have felt like
She is still the same now, so full of
energy and life. Much of the time I forget she is sick, I am not sure if
it is that I am in denial because I don't want her to be sick, or if it is
because she seems so healthy that it is easy to forget. I found out that
I was pregnant with Henry shortly after mom found out about her cancer
returning. One of the first things she said after I told her I was
pregnant was that she was worried she wouldn't get to know him. I am so
happy that she has met all of my children and that they get to spend time with
her every week, I really hope that they always remember her and how much fun
she is and how much they love her.
I am so thankful to my parents for giving
us such a wonderful example of a loving marriage. We would always groan
when they would kiss in front of us, especially every time we get onto an
elevator, I am not sure what started that tradition, but it never fails, as
soon as those doors shut, they are going to smooch. I am grateful that I
have always felt secure in their love for me and for each other.
Mom is spontaneous. She has an idea and
runs with it. She never needs much notice, and is always up for anything.
This is another one of my parents in their
element. I think that they were meant to be grandparents. They seem
to have loads of patience and love for these children.
One thing you may not have known about mom is
she is a little bit naughty. She has her own sense of what is right and
as long as it fits into her "it's not going to hurt anybody" code,
she goes right ahead. Giving pop and coffee to grandkids falls into this
category. She loves to spoil the kids
with candy, juice boxes, chocolate milk, and fruit snacks. I remember her breaking into the Habitat
house in their backyard when it was under construction to see what they would
be able to see of her house through their windows. She also broke into a
cabin in the woods once when it was raining to stay dry. I am pretty sure she and dad played cards
with another couple in there while they waited out the storm. I also am quite sure that at least one
grandchild has had a driving lesson on her lap.
She has always had a servant heart, I am glad
that I could see all the times she baked goodies for people and brought meals
and just spent time with people who needed it. I watched her serving as
an elder in her church and being a caring nurse.
My mom is superwoman. She manages to fit
so many things into her day. She is always cleaning, baking, cooking,
working, shopping, and doing whatever needs to be done. She cares for
those around her and it shows. She has been an outstanding role model for
me to follow as I have become a mother myself.
In my memory we went to the beach a ton every
summer. Mom would never get her hair
wet because she did not want to ruin her ‘do, but she made up for not going
under with us in the water by digging the best holes. She would dig holes big enough for multiple kids to be
buried. She made sand castles with us
and taught us how to make drippy doos.
She or dad would throw us into the deep water while we screamed with
delight. She always made sure we had at
least SPF 4 or 8 sunblock on.
Growing up our house always smelled like food –
good food. Mom is a great cook and baker. She always makes too much food and all of it
is always delicious. I am glad to have
inherited these tendencies, even with my limited palate.
Mom’s code also includes a bit of good enough –
if you are going to be swimming in a pool, sunscreen on faces is good enough :)
Our family is a card playing family. We were taught young and it has always been
something we did when we get together.
The running joke is that mom can’t play an entire hand of cards without
doing a load of laundry or something else that totally disrupts the game. We played many hands of rummy during the
week at the cottage, but since there was no washing machine, she did pretty
well!
We thought it was so cool that mom would drive
crazy on our street. She would swerve
between lanes back and forth the whole last block (probably going 15 mph, but
it was still cool).
I love it when someone plays with my hair. I must have gotten this from her doing it
when I was growing up, but she just twists it into a ponytail, then lets it go,
runs her fingers through it this way and that and I feel so relaxed I could
fall asleep.
If mom has a big breakfast, she won’t eat again
until supper. I must have gotten dad’s
stomach or something, because I never have skipped a meal because I wasn’t
hungry. Mom eats applesauce with everything. If I invite her to dinner she invariably
offers to bring applesauce, probably because she wants to make sure she can
have it with dinner. She makes her own
applesauce, freezing a bunch every year.
She mixes in about equal parts applesauce and sugar to make sure it is
sweet enough :) She also over sweetens
mashed strawberries and sliced peaches so that they all taste good enough to be
desserts. I have a hard time toning
down my own since that is what I grew up on.
Mom loves to scare the pants off of people. Growing up, you never knew if mom would be
hiding behind a door or around a corner, ready to pounce and make a loud noise
that would surprise you.
Mom, I love you so much and am so grateful for your example and who you
are.
Thank you.
I love you.
