She dreamed of you from the
time she was
a little girl cradling a baby doll
in her arms.
She always saw you playing
around the
little cottage in her childhood
dreams.
She carried you in her body
and you made her sick every
morning for weeks and
weeks. She bore you into the
world through
intense pain but when she
heard you cry
and saw your wrinkled face
she forgot all
about it and wept tears of joy.
She fed you at her breast and
her whole world revolved
around you. She stole into
your room at night just to
watch you sleep
and she was sure you were
the most
beautiful child on earth. She
set up through
the night to bathe away the
fever and at
breakfast your dad said; "Sleep
well, honey?" oblivious to the
all-night vigil. She
somehow always knew when
you needed
her, even in the middle of the
night, and she
came to your room and
changed your
bedding and made sure you
were warm
and dry. She covered your ears
and gave you your
coat and checked your
homework and set
through all your ball games.
She nagged
you to brush your teeth with
words of
wisdom like; "Be true to your
teeth or they
will be false to you." She
changed your diaper and
cleaned up when you were
sick.
And who do you think always
cleaned the
gunk out of the kitchen sink
and bathtub
drain?
Her cookies made you forget
the beating
you took from the
neighborhood bully. She
listened to you and didn't
laugh when
others would have mocked
you. She
believed in you when you
didn't believe in
yourself and prayed for you
even when
you didn't think you needed it.
She made
you think you could do things
you were sure you couldn't do.
She was tough
enough to call your bluff and
discipline you
and give you a sense of
boundaries and the
security that comes with it. She
knew when
you needed a spanking or just
a nap and
she didn't always give you
candy though she longed to
indulge you.
She was always waiting when
you came in
late. When you complained
about it, she
pretended to be asleep the
way you always
did when you wanted her to
carry you in
from the car after a long trip.
She read the Bible to you and
read the Bible
in front of you and did what
mothers have
to do to make sure the family
is faithful in
church. She made your dad a
much better
man than he ever would have
been without
her. She mended clothes as a
labor of love and it broke her
heart to see how quickly
you grew out of them. She
knew you were
only loaned to her from God
and soon the
house would fall silent again.
She washed
mountains of dishes and
truckloads of
laundry. She put up food on
the hottest summer days and
didn't complain.
She filled your home with
fragrance and
beauty and music. The smell or
her perfume
and fresh-cut flowers, bacon
for breakfast
and Sunday roast. Her eyes
were bright and
happy and full of life. She wept
though, wept and worried a
thousand times for you
when no one ever knew. She
took the
blame for your failures and
stood back and
let your dad have the glory for
your
successes.
And having done all these
things and a thousand others
that make mother a sacred
word, she still felt she wasn't
the mother
she should have been.
#Mothers i Hail ooo
