Mothers Day 2011

A little change of pace. Today is Mothers Day in the United States, I don't know if any other country observes this, if they don't, they should. Everybody out there will tell you that Mothers are "superwomen" or that their Mother is the best. Well, let me tell you, if you REALLY want a Super Mom, mine wins hands down!
Most people that know me don't know that my Father passed away when I was in 2nd grade, making me all of 7 or 8 years old. At the time, I had only 1 younger brother and 1 younger sister...My littlest brother came from another marriage. So, at the ripe old age of 27, my Mother was now alone with three very young children...ages 8-5-3.
To this day, I have NO IDEA how she managed to raise us. Yes, her parents helped some, we saw my grandparents on the weekends, but that was about all. We lived in an old farmhouse, when I say old, it was 100+ years old then. This was up in New Jersey. The house was basically in the woods, we had a few neighbors across the street, but they were much older. There were no kids around to play with, other than each other.
Thinking back, we always had food on the table. Christmas and Birthdays were amazing. Every year just before school started we went shopping for new clothes, remember this was LONG before Wal-Mart came on the scene, we went to Sears, that was the only place that had clothes to fit my skinny brother and my fat bleep.
This was also back when they had classroom Mothers. These Mothers would come in and assist with classroom birthday parties, arts and crafts, and who knows what else behind the scenes. My Mother was at every function I can think of!
Abraham Lincoln once said: “All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother”. No truer words have ever been spoken. My mother taught us about friendship, safety, kindness, nature and gardening....now you know where I got THAT part of my life from. She also taught us about laughter. I mentioned above some of the things she taught me, let me demonstrate:
My sense of clothes:

Safety, it was dangerous to ride wild animals:

And of course, cleanliness:

I mentioned laughter, I got her sense of humor too, warped!
But seriously, there is a part of Mothers Day that I hate. Every jewelry store, department store, and any other store you can think of, tell you to buy your Mother this, that or the other thing to show her how much you love her. I would love to if I could afford it, I would buy her everything under the sun, but it wouldn't mean anything. Abraham Lincoln also said one other great thing: “No gift to your mother can ever equal her gift to you - life”.
Mother because of you, I am what I am...I had an absolute wonderful childhood, and I would not change it for anything......There is also no way in the world I can ever Thank You enough!!!
I LOVE YOU!!
Darren
p.s. She will kill me for this picture, but I had to end today with my two favorite flowers:

Wife on the left, Mother on the right