Sunday, May 10, 2009

MOTHER’S /BIRTH DAY

The great baseball Hall of Famer, Ralph Kiner once said during a baseball game as an announcer for the New York Mets, on Father’s Day: “On Father’s Day, we again wish you all a Happy Birthday!”

Today is Mother’s Day, so I would like to again wish my Mom a Happy Birthday!

Yes, every so many years, her birthday falls on Mother’s Day, too. Today she is 91, strong as an ox, and still carries a wooden spoon in a holster for when she sees me. I always think of her birthday as a sunny beautiful May Day, filled with sunshine and flowers.

Mom taught me a lot. She taught me that Olympia, her name, is special, after all, how many Olympia’s do you know, personally? She also taught me that I better behave, or that wooden spoon would move like the speed of light, and feel like the speed of sound!

I would like to take a moment to make a few comments on mom’s out there that I think are special. I would like to remind everyone that mom’s are special, in their own light, but these mom’s in particular. One that comes to mind is TLW (The Little Woman). She, like many others share a bound, and a deep sadness, that on Mother’s Day can be painful. First she does not dwell on her pain, she like all Mothers bares it only in her heart and soul. These mothers are special because something that defines them as mothers, their children are under siege or worse, have passed on, long before they should have.

TLW has suffered both. She lost a child 28 years ago, and has a child who lives in a special home. This home is for people, good, loving people with mental disabilities.

There are other mothers too, ones that have children that suffer depressions, or are autistic, maybe disfigured, or find themselves outside the law. When you draw out the different problems mothers have with their children the circle of perfectly happy mom’s gets smaller.

We all are someone’s child, special, challenged, indifferent, we are all someone’s children. The beauty of it all is we are children of the God given: mothers.

My mother-in-law, Helen, was a typical mom in so many ways, yet I hear a special quality when TLW speaks of her. She, like my mom, instilled certain values in her children that never left. Those values made for a kinder, more humane world, one that would not be tolerable, without Mom’s everywhere, and love, as well as their wooden spoons.

So happy Mother’s day, Ellen (TLW), Olympia, Helen, Theresa, Frances, MaryAnn, Joanne, Maureen, Sara, Angela, Mrs. Garrity, Laurie Ann, Jennifer, Jean-Marie, Christine, Elizabeth, Mrs. O’Hara and her daughters who are mothers, and anyone out there like Laura B. who reads this blog and has one of her own called: http://lbeeler.blogspot.com/, read it, it will lower your cholesterol!

So, if you are lucky enough to still have your Mom, give her a hug and a big old kiss for me, too. If she has passed on, look in the mirror, and say: “Thank you, Mom, I love you.”

MMB (My Man Bill) is back in the hospital, and needs our hopes and prayers, once more, and pray for my brother-in-law, John. Lets keep them in mind, and all those that need our hopes and prayers.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

JO-JO,
Thank you for such a beautiful tribute, I know I can speak for all of us.
I love YOU,
Your younger sister!!!!