Mom

I love my mom.  From the day she and dad first brought me home until now she has been looking out for me.  She always asks how I am doing and does the same for the rest of my family.  One of my favorite stories about her looking out for me was when I was in kindergarten.  It’s funny, after 28 years I still remember this like it was yesterday.

I got on the wrong bus at school.  I blame my teachers for that.  As I was riding home I recognized many landmarks leading up to my house.  We pulled into my neighborhood and drove right passed my house.  The bus stopped several places in the neighborhood and I thought the bus driver would simply turn around and take me back to my house.  As I watched my friends and other kids get off at their stops I soon realized I was the last kid on the bus.  I walked up to the bus driver and asked her to take me back to my house and she said she couldn’t.  So being the great bus driver she was she dropped me off at the back of my fairly large subdivision and left me there.  No phones.  No friends.  No adults.  I was all alone.  So I did what any kid who watched too many movies would do.  I started trying to ‘hail a cab’ as cars passed by.  No one stopped.  Thank goodness I had gone with my dad a few times to his boss’ house.  I was able to recognize the house so I rang the doorbell.  A young teenage boy answered the door and I explained my situation.  I told him that if we could just walk through the neighborhood I could probably tell him where I lived.  So we started out.  Eventually we approached my house.  I tried to walk with confidence when I saw my mom and some of her friends frantically looking for me.  I’m sure I looked pretty scared.  But my mom was there for me.

Mom was always there when I had a runny nose, an ear infection, and also cleaned up the occasional puke when I got sick.  I think she may be the reason I have a little case of OCD and perfectionism.  She was always making me clean my room.  We even labeled my closet so I would know where to put things.

Mom taught me how to vacuum, wash dishes, dust, and all the other household chores I never thought I would use once I moved out.  She taught me how to cook and read a recipe.  I was just telling some friends the other day how mom would come home and I would already be home and I would have a fresh-baked batch of chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin cookies made.  That was pretty much the extent of my cooking skills at the time.

Mom and dad were both examples to me as they taught me how to pray as they tucked me in every night.  Mom would read to me my favorite books, The Giving Tree and Where the Wild Things Are.  She was always so animated when she told the part about the wild things gnashing their teeth.

And now mom gets to hang out with the grandkids from time to time and she gets to continue to do the things she did for me with them.  She will tuck the kids into bed and pray with them.  And she loves to read them books.

Thank you mom for being such a great person and for being a great Nana Erma for the kids.  I love you.