I have always considered myself to be a non-denominational Christian. I can’t ever remember a time when I didn’t believe in God. Even though I know He helped me through some really rough times, I never felt his presence more than the day before my mother passed away in the hospice.
My story really begins long before that day. I need for you to understand the relationship my mother and I shared. My mother was born in 1924. This was a time when young women went to finishing school and most of their education was in social etiquette and taking care of home and family. Mother was an exception to this.
She was the youngest of two girls. Much younger! Her sister was twenty years old and her mother was not well. Mother was rather high strung and I’ve been told that grandma really couldn’t handle her. As a result she became grandpa’s little shadow. My grandpa was a very loving and very wise man, but his choice of activities began and ended in the pool halls and at the race tracks. As you can imagine, my mother, even though she was taught all of the proper things a lady should do, (including never wearing a watch after 5:00 p.m. because a lady was never expected to keep track of time. This was to be her escort’s responsibility.), she was way way ahead of her time. She was the son grandpa never had.
The result of this was that I had the most liberated mother I knew. This was wonderful fun and all of my friends loved her, but her parenting skills were basically non-existent. The only thing I learned from her were thousands of rules of etiquette that were no longer followed and a feeling of being unconditionally loved. I have to say at this point that if I had to pick a mother I would pick mine. I can’t think of anything more important for a child to know than that they are loved no matter what.
Of course, I had many trials and tribulations learning to cook, clean, and raise four children of my own, but in the long run, through all of my mistakes, I managed to instill the same feeling in my children. They have all told me that there was never a time that they doubted that I loved them and I thank my mother for that.
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