No Greater Love

Posted on February 14, 2018 under Storytelling with 4 comments

Happy Valentine’s Day, mom

 

M is for the many things she gave me,

O means that she’s only growing old,

T is for the tears she shed to save me,

H is for her heart of purest gold,

E is for her eyes, with love light shining,

R means right and right she’ll always be,

 Put them all together they spell mother,

A word that means the world to me.

I know. I checked the calendar. It’s Valentine’s Day and not Mother’s Day.

Valentine’s Day is for lovers. But it is so much more. It is a time to applaud the notion of love and nowhere is this more recognizable than the love of a mother.

Many of us are getting up there in years. And many of us have lost one or both parents. I don’t think I would get much argument from my peers that we will never again see a generation of women such as those who raised the baby boomers.

How did they do it?

How did they raise 6, 8, 10, 12 children… and in some cases more? Without the benefit of modern appliances, they toiled from early morning until late at night. They prepared meals, baked their own bread, washed countless loads of wash (including cloth diapers!)by hand before the advent of the ringer washer. They read bedtime stories, helped with homework and bandaged many a bloody knee.

They mended clothing and broken hearts and wiped a lot of bums.

They found time to worship, very often praying the rosary daily and attending mass on Sundays.

And when their children left the nest, many of them spread their wings and went out into the public work force where they demonstrated their remarkable work ethic and prowess as managers. After all, can there be anything more daunting than managing a house filled with enough children to field a baseball team?

Some of our moms have died. Others are still living but have been robbed of their memories and a handful is still carrying on well into their 90’s acting as if they are still teenagers.

Being a mother of young children in 2018 is no less challenging. In many ways, it is more difficult. We honor these women too.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all mothers.