A Day for Mothers

I’ve been thinking about mothers all through today, surprise, surprise.  At church this morning the speaker was a young lady in her early thirties.  She and her husband have yet to have any children, despite their desire to have kids.  Perhaps an odd choice for a talk on Motherʻs Day but she gave a real good talk about all the mothers she had learned from during her life, only one of which was her “real” mother.  Then she spent some time talking about the opportunities she has had to mother others even though she has yet to have any children of her own.  It was a good, thought provoking talk.

Iʻve watched my wife and my daughter mother today.  While a nice day, it has been far from an ideal day.  Life just isn’t like that. They each have had challenges from their families throughout the day. Yet they both hang in there, doing their best and loving their children in spite of the day turning out less than ideal. They never give up, they never quit.  President James E. Faust once said: “I am also sorry that I have not sooner appreciated the great sublime, unique gifts which our wives inherit from divinity. I speak of their womanly intuitions and their six senses, and their steadfast faith and capacity to love.”  I see that in my wife and my daughters who have children, as well as my daughters-in-law.  When I think of my own mother that’s the way I some times feel.  These women I love constantly amaze me. 

I recently had the opportunity to read some letters my mother had written to my father during the months they were separated just before they were married.  They were engaged at the time.  I found it humorous that as the time got shorter she began writing the number of days left until their wedding day on her letters, just under the date.  It was somewhat of an eye-opening experience, to see that side of her I never really had thought of before. After all, whoever thinks of their parents and as young couple in love?  In one letter about 5 weeks before the wedding she wrote, “I don’t see how I got such a considerate, good looking, wonderful guy as I did.  I still have to pinch myself to believe its true.”  She wrote of her preparations for the wedding, all the stuff she was arranging, asking his opinion about this and that, worrying about him as he was in the reserves and the Korean conflict was still going on.  They were in school at the “old AC” but much of the letters where of the time when she was at home down in the Salt Lake Valley while he was either off on maneuvers or helping on the farm in Wyoming. 

At another point she wrote saying she hoped her sister will “be able to live her me while you’re gone.  She remembers the holidays before when I haunted the post office and about drove her crazy.” She wrote of one incident when her dog, Tag, pulled a ligament. She persuaded her parents to let her take her to the vet and came away with a bill of $17.50 for the check and a cast the dog had to wear for a month.  She was so worried about how her parents would react that she told them it had only cost $10.00 and made up the difference on her own. Then she wrote; “Now you see another side of my character and not such a good side either.  And I’m afraid marriage won’t change it suddenly, I hope I never lie or deceive you.  I haven’t yet and I pray I never will – but – I’m in a pickle” That was another thing that seemed so out of character for the mother I knew.  

I love my Mom.  She’s not around any more.  I miss her. Since she passed away I have found myself more than once wishing I could call her and ask her about one thing or another.  In the years raising our children she was always such a calming voice, a voice of reassurance and confidence. She bailed us out of trouble more than once.  As I think back on some of the attitudes and comments I heard from her in my youth I can see how she matured and softened as she grew older, I’m grateful to have lived as long as I have and hope I’m going through some of the same improvements she did.  

More than once I remember seeing her in tears because of something I had done.  When I think of the things I put her through in my youth it makes me so very grateful for the principle of repentance and hope that I was able to convey to her in some small way my appreciation for her patience and forgiveness.

I love this picture of my Mom, taken shortly before she passed away.  The kindness, gentleness and love that was my Mom seem to emanate from the photo.  My Mom was a remarkable woman. I miss her and am so glad for hope I have of being able to see her again and being able to continue to be counted as her son in the eternities.