tribute to Mom

Those of you who have known my mom for 20 years or less probably think of her as a sweet little old lady. And indeed she had become just that. However, she didn’t think of herself as sweet, or little or old and neither did I. I’d like to tell you how I will remember Mom.

She was the strongest person I’ve ever known. She believed that she could do anything she put her mind to. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” she would say, and she was never lacking in will. When she made up her mind to do something, she did it. She believed that God helps those who help themselves, and she had very little patience with those who had no backbone.

Mom was never a people pleaser nor was she a people judger. “Everyone to their own notion, said the old lady when she kissed the cow,” was another of her favorite idioms. She didn’t infringe on others’ activities nor did she expect them to infringe on hers.

She was truly content in her circumstances and took great pleasure in each day that God gave her. I never heard her express a desire for something that someone else had. She was never jealous of someone else’s accomplishments, their possessions, or their children. She told us frequently that she had the best family any one could have, and that she never wanted us to feel any guilt when she was gone.

Mom was always person of deep faith and even when she wasn’t walking the walk, she was laying the foundation for what would become my world view. I always knew that she believed in God as the Creator of the universe, in the divinity of Jesus Christ, the power of prayer and eternal life with the Father. When she wasn’t going to church herself she still saw to it that I went--first to Sunday school and ultimately to church and church activities.

She was generous. When the girls were little she took them to Disney World and said “I intend to spend my money on them while I’m alive. These are the things they’ll remember.” And spend it she did. She went right on til the day she died. When Jim told her in the hospital that she would be getting back some money from the income tax, she said, “I’m going to put that in my little hidey hole for Christmas.”

Mom couldn’t stand to see someone hungry or homeless, and when approached, she always gave them money. She frequently bought breakfast for some poor old homeless fellow, a regular at McDonalds. We thought maybe she went too far when she started joining him at his table because she knew he was lonely.
She left a living legacy in the people who knew and loved her.