Mom Memories

As I sit here on the eve of Mother's Day, I thought I'd share some memories about my mom.

• As a little shaver on a snowy day, Mom would pull me around our block on my sled.
• On rainy summer days with big mud puddles and rain-filled ditches, she'd let me ride and play outside without getting too mad.
• In 2nd or 3rd grade, our school (K-12 in one building) celebrated homecoming with a box decorating contest. The boxes looked like miniature parade floats and symbolized our victory over the hated Ironmen. I, like many kids, told Mom about the contest way later than I should have. But that didn't faze her. Drawing from life experience, she came up with an idea of hanging the Ironmen "out to dry" and helped me build a clothesline on a football field with the team's name hanging on it. Aw, who am I kidding, she did 95% of it. And it came in 2nd place.
• Mom, instead of Dad, taught me to mow. She later helped me get mowing jobs around town and would usually help me by trimming around trees and landscaping.
• During the summer months, Mom (and my sister - 22 years my senior) took me and my cousins to see about every Disney film. "The World's Greatest Athlete" and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" stick out as favorites.
• Mom made the best beef noodles in the world. Thankfully, Prudence studied her "pinch of this" and "dab of that" method of cooking it to the point that her's taste just like Mom's. Can't thank her enough. Panda's learning to make it now.
• In the 2nd grade I was diagnosed with a lazy eye. The doctor gave Mom a set of eye exercises to work thru with me. He didn't think she'd stick with it, but 6 months later I was glasses-free. And I remained so until my freshman year of college.
• Every morning thru high school, mom would wake me up at 7:10 and tell me it was 7:15, knowing that I wouldn't get up until the second call. Then as I made my way to the breakfast table with my eyes shut like a mole, she'd greet me with "Good morning, Sunshine!"
• When she made my lunch for school, she always made a ham sandwich (cut in half - rectangularly), a bag of chips, and a Ding Dong.
• During the first semester of my sophomore year at college, I found it easier to goof around with friends than do my schoolwork. After a month into the semester, I felt like there was no way I could catch up and considered dropping out. Mom (and Dad) drove to Champaign, took me out for Godfather's Pizza, talked me down from the ledge lovingly, and helped me get focused to catch up.
• The year that we considered Mom might be in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's was the year that Prudence and I were expecting our first child. To announce the blessed event-to-be, we took advantage of a visit from her parents to have all the future grandparents over for supper. We made place cards for the dining room table with titles like "Grandma W" or "Oma P". Because we often joked that our dog was our kid, almost everyone thought we were making references to him. But Mom, the one that was the most confused of all of us, was clear for that meal and realized immediately what the place cards meant and ran to give Prudence and I a hug. A moment I'll never forget.
• Most of the memories beyond that point aren't as pleasant, but I do remember the last smile she gave me on a visit to her in the nursing home. It was about 2 years before she died.

I love you, Mom. Happy Mother's Day.