Just Some Reminiscing on Mother's Day

My mother became a mother when she had me, in the middle of December over three decades ago. I'm sure that when she was so very young and just beginning on the path of motherhood, she had no idea what to expect of the years ahead! But as those years rolled on, she had three more girls and lived in a few different places all over the South. She was a pastor's wife, and I know that wasn't the easiest role all the time. And she was a nurse, but after my very earliest years, she was a stay-at-home mother (only that's probably a bit of a misnomer for my mother, who has always liked to be on the go!). Then when I was in third-grade, she added the role of homeschool mother, something that was still rather new at that time. My mother and my friends' mothers were pioneers in the modern homeschooling movement, so it was a much scarier prospect, with much less support. So my mom, with a friend's mother, started a homeschool support group a couple years into our adventure. With her fellow homeschool warrior mothers, they planned field trips and cooperative learning experiences, put together annual Thanksgiving dinners (which was one of my favorite memories from our homeschool years, and I think there's no way a group could pull it off quite so successfully these days).  and end-of-the year programs.

It was somewhere around that time that my parents decided it would be helpful for my mom to return to work very part-time for a little extra income. (So let's add working mom to the pastor's wife, homeschooling mom and homeschool group leader roles). Shortly after that (and because of that extra income), she was able to go the doctor for a visit she felt she needed, and she was told that she had breast cancer. I think she was 34, with four children, the youngest of whom was just a year old. I remember when my parents told us that she was having surgery just a few days later. We were having our morning devotions, and my dad mentioned that we needed to pray for her because was going to have surgery that Friday (I think it was a Friday - I could be wrong). Even when the next day, while I was setting the table for dinner, she explained that she had cancer, it didn't really register. My reaction was a rather blissful fog for the next several months, and I know that was my way of coping, but I also think it was because my mom's demeanor around us in regard to the whole thing was a relatively calm one. So she had surgery in the fall, and a couple months later, she did a round of chemotherapy. And guess what? We still homeschooled that whole year. That entire year. I wonder if my mom even considered that it might be too much. If she did, I was never aware of it. In fact, we even did some dissecting that year in science,which was a bit hard on my mom's chemo-battered constitution, and now seems really funny. I don't think anyone would have blamed you if you had put that off a year or two, Mom!

She weathered that, and we grew older, and she mothered us through the uncertain teen years. And when no one was really sure how to do homeschool high school transcripts, she did it, and worked to get us some scholarships to boot. And then she planned a few weddings. Somewhere in there she took a medical missions trip (or two?). When she became a grandmother, she came to help with each baby. She even caught one of mine, then curled up in bed with us right after and slept until morning. It was just that time that she weathered a really terrible life storm. She could have created a new life for herself, but she chose to fight for those she loved instead. It was a hard battle, and a dark time, but came out into the light at the end of the tunnel. I think she's living in it now. Oh, and never one to rest easy, she went back to school recently, in addition to working nights as full-time nurse, and she just recently completed her courses and secured her B.S.N. (with excellent grades in each class).

So, there's my mother - a go-getter, a trailblazer, a super-smart professional, a giver, and do-what-needs-to-be-done-er, and one who takes care of those she loves. There's just one real problem with my mom, and it's that I think she's just a little bit crazy, because she thinks she's not all that special!