Lucky Dorito

I really have to tell you about today. Not only do I get to experience the blessings of motherhood, complete with handmade cards, poems and breakfast in bed – but I also get to reflect on what wonderful examples of motherhood I’ve had in my precious mother and my hubby’s sweet mother and my sisters.

I think I learned some of my goofiness from my mom. (Sorry Ma, I mean that in the nicest way – and I have certain examples in MIND! Hopefully I’ll get to them soon.) I remember laughing often as a kid, with her and at her! I spent a lot of time with her once my sisters had gone off to school and I LOVED THAT!

For whatever reason, today I was thinking of when I was a little girl and I lived to follow the lead of my sisters. In all things, but “looks” – me with blonde hair and hazel eyes, in a family of dark haired girls with big brown eyes. I wanted to do everything they did, from the beginning. I thought each of them was fabulous and I wanted to BE where they were, DO what they were doing, WEAR what they were wearing… all of it, when they were around, that is. I was advanced for my age – hanging out with older girls all the time. I spoke early (and often – a trait that has continued throughout my life!) I learned to read early and I wrote in cursive long before I started school, having learned from sitting at the table with them while they did homework. (Because… they couldn’t get AWAY from me! I helped to do my sisters’ 2nd grade homework for her – the year I should have been in kindergarten but didn’t go (which was NOT a good thing, I see now… but at the time, I thought it was great and ‘Lina, who struggled with school, didn’t mind in the least!)

My mom decided to keep me home for that one last year – instead of sending me to kindergarten. The state schooling rules must have been more lax at that time, because the next year, I started directly into 1st grade. I was, shall we say, more than a wee bit spoiled. And demanding. And loud. And a tough cookie. My sisters must not have liked me much then, because I was the “baby” – and I played the part WELL. My mom and I spent those last 2 years on adventures together … I imagine she was on a journey to come to terms with the fact that her last child was starting school…. and I was a little girl that reveled in the fact that I had her focused attention during the day time when all my sisters were gone.

When my sisters all went to school, it left me and my mom FREE to roam around together. My mom and I found this little store – I honestly have no idea what it actually was called by name … but we called it the “Yucky Shop”. It was a huge old building, part antique shop, part second hand store, part flea market. Stuff was piled high everywhere you looked. I could spend hours and hours sifting through stuff and remember begging all the time to go there. She would relent, quite possibly just to SHUT ME UP (because, YES, I was quite a talker as a child) … and off we’d go. We’d stop next door at a “Scotty’s Restaurant” that had little square hamburgers for 7 cents each… I could eat 3 or 4 of them! It was one of my favorite times in my childhood…. those days of searching in the Yucky Shop. It’s funny how now I see so much of myself in my little Luby – her sense of humor and total assumption that the world revolves around her. It all comes full circle.

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Then there is my mother-in-law. She is a strong Christian woman that raised 4 sons – which absolutely boggles my brain sometimes! Her first husband, who was the father to my husband and his older brother died in a work-related accident when the boys were young. She remarried later and had two more sons with her new husband – but sadly, that marriage didn’t stand the test of time, despite all her efforts. She raised all four of her sons to be caring, thoughtful, honest and precious men. (I just know my hubby loves it when I call him *precious* but it is true! lol) Three of the four of them are now married and their wives will surely attest to how remarkably blessed we are to have married into her family! She is a truly wonderful woman and I love her dearly.

*****

I prayed and cried off and on all weekend for two young girls (17 & 18 years old) that I know who lost their mother to cancer a few years ago, knowing Mother’s day must always be hard on them. This day, however, is probably even more so then ever – as they found out this week their sole surviving parent, their dad – was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and his doctors say he has approximately 12 to 18 months to live. It makes me heart hurt for them.

*****

No matter how you spent today – I pray each of you felt the love of your family around you.

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