My Mother

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This is the 1 year anniversary, if yiu can call it that, of my mother's passing. I spent today thinking about her and what she meant to me and my life. That lady scolded me, disciplined me, loved me, clothed me, fed me and so many other things and the whole time what she was really doing was molding me...molding me into the person I am today. I went into the bathroom to comb my hair and wash up and as I rinsed the soap from my face, I looked up into the mirror and saw my mother looking back at me. My mother's eyes, her smile, looking right back at me and it brought joy to my heart. I thought about my life and all the things my parents did for me. I was just a child and we were so poor. Winter came and I didn't have a coat, there was no money to buy one, but my mom had some material in a box. It was red, thick and so soft and then she had this fake fur that looked like leopard skin...I can remember standing there while she measured me and then she took a newspaper and cut a pattern. Later that day, I had the most beautiful fur lined red coat with shiny black buttons. I wore it proudly and I spoke of it the day we had her memorial because I wanted everyone to know that that one day in my life has such high measure for me. That one day and that beautiful red coat. I will never forget it, how proud I was wearing it, how it was made with so much love from a mother to her daughter. There was not a more beautiful coat in the most expensive stores in the world than my red coat with the fake leopard skin fur. I thought about her laughter and how she loved everyone of us children more than life itself. I thought about how she and daddy always made sure we had music, daddy would play his old guitar and we would just sing. And then there were the funny things, like the time mom's hairpiece flew off her head and I had to chase it down the street and how she sneezed out the window in our moving car and her false teeth just flew out of her mouth and somehow, my aunt reached out of her window and caught them. We all laughed until we cried. And then there was the time my youngest brothers were fighting and Tommy went down the hall passing mom on the way. My brother Randy thought those footsteps were Tommy's and hid behind the door with a pillow and when mom opened the door, he just swung that pillow, hitting her in the face and smashing her cigarette. That was a beating we all attended lol..I say beating, it really wasn't, I just laugh when I think about how big my brother's eyes got when he realized he had hit mom with that pillow. I remembered mom's mournful cry when my sister passed away and how she said children don't die before their parents, it just wasn't right and then years later when the news came that my oldest brother Bobby had passed away. This woman had the biggest love for all of her children. And then, I thought about the time I spent in her apartment, going through her things after she was gone and realizing that she had kept every report card, every birth announcement, every picture we had drawn in our young lives. I remeber hearing someone, a neighbor of hers say, there isn't much of value here...oh, I said, but there is and I held up all of those things she had saved for so many years and I said, to my mother, these were worth more than all of the gold in the world and to me they are priceless. We do not find our dearest treasures in silver and gold...we find them in the hearts of those we love. Mom, I miss you and my love for you gets stronger everyday. Thank you, thank you...I am so glad God chose you to be my mother.