Things My Mother Always Forgot

As many of you know, my mother is in a nursing home.  She will be 98 on her birthday, June 19th.  The older she gets, the more she forgets.  Recently I went to see her and she did not recognize me.  I told her that I was Tim, her youngest son.  She quickly replied that I could not be Tim.  She said, "You are too good looking to be Tim!"  Honestly, I did not know what to think about that statement!  Was that a compliment?  You decide!

As I sit here on Sunday afternoon of Mother's day I decided to write a tribute to her that she will probably never read.  It's about her forgetfulness.  There were some things that she always forgot and I am forever grateful.

1.  Mother always forgot how tired she was because there was always something else do.  She would get up at 4:30 a.m. and cook a full breakfast of biscuits, bacon, eggs and gravy.  Then she would work all day around the house, in the garden, sew, "put up vegetables," work in her flowers and then come in the house and cook a full supper, clean up the kitchen and get Daddy's lunch ready for the next day's work.  

2.  Mother always forgot to do things for herself.  She was always doing something for someone else.  She would help my grandmother, teach Sunday School, (she was my teacher until 5th grade) make clothes for my sister and for me, take food to people in our community, serve as a room mother, and so much more.

3.  Mother always forgot to think that there was something that she could not do.  She would tackle a project and see it through to the very end.  There were days when I would come home from school and she had moved a wall in the house.  I will never forget the day I came home from school and found her in the side yard building a round BBQ pit.  She mixed the mortar and laid the bricks.  We had some good food cooked on that thing!  She was always creative and took up painting in her 70's.  I have some of her beautiful paintings as proof that she could DO ANYTHING!

4.  Mother always forgot that she never finished high school. When she did get to sit for any length of time she would read.  She loved to read.  We had a set of Compton Encyclopedias.  She would sit and read them.  I gained a love for geography and travel from sitting with her while we visited far away places "in the encyclopedia."  

5.  Mother always forgot that I was her favorite!  After all, I am the baby of six children.  I recognize the fact that if my brother and sisters read this, they will be unhappy!  However, when we would be at family gatherings and start talking about how spoiled I was she was quick to remind them that I was the baby and that THEY helped spoil me as much as she did!  Actually she loved us all unconditionally.  She was tough on us sometimes, but I'm really glad.  There is not telling where I would be if she had not been tough. She prayed for me everyday.  

6.  Mother always forgot how strong she was.  She is one of the strongest women I have ever met in my life.  NO!  She IS the strongest women I have ever met in my life.  I know that she had a tough life.  I know that she grew up in the Great Depression.  I know that she lived with difficult people in her family.  I know that her marriage to my daddy was not healthy.  Yet, she remained strong.  She remained strong in her faith.  She remained strong in her love and dependance on the Lord.  One of her all time favorite hymns was, "I Must Tell Jesus."  The last few words to the first stanza of that old hymn says, "Jesus will help me, Jesus alone!"  

Because she forgot so many things, I will remember so much more that she taught me through her forgetfulness.  I'll write about those for another blog post.

Happy Mother's Day Mother!

Your good looking baby son!

Tim