My mom is currently facing some health issues that have caused me to step back and really think about her as a person, and her influence on me.
The first word that comes to mind is survivor. Her biological mother tried to hide her pregnancy by wearing double corsets, not allowing the growing baby much room at all. My grandparents adopted her, and took her home from the hospital when she was only a day old.
My grandmother had to massage her arms and legs to help straighten them. That was only the beginning of the life-threatening issues that Mom would encounter at intervals throughout her life, and would overcome. Perhaps that is where her strong will or stubborness came from, or she survived because of it.
Mom was not the luckiest in love either but did not give up trying. She got married the first time at 15, and set off from rural Ohio to live with her new husband in California. When that marriage did not last, she went back to Ohio and eventually married my biological father.
She was strong enough to leave that physically abusive marriage, and I admire her for that. We spent several years with my grandparents before Mom met the love of her life, and the man I called Dad. They were married 30 years before leukemia took his life.
These events all helped to form the person she is, but do not tell the whole story. Mom loves music of all kinds. She herself had a beautiful soprano singing voice as a young lady. She is creative, too- enjoying sewing, crochet and embroidery over the years. She still enjoys arranging silk flowers and other decorations for her living space.
Mom remains a spiritual person, a quiet underlying part of her. This spirituality may be why she loves everyone, despite how she may be treated. What a lesson to be so non-judgmental and loving. She is a social person, and loves to be part of the group.
In myself, I can see her spirituality, love of music, her creativity, her friendliness and enjoyment of being with others, never giving up on the search for true love, and an underlying survivor spirit. She has a ready smile, and I have actually been told that I have the same smile.
One thing I have to laugh about is cooking. I remember Mom cooking some decent meals, but my grandmother was really the cook in the family. I seem to take after Mom there, too! But that is ok.
Mom's health issues now could take away her thoughts and memories, but I will have mine. And thanks to her influences, I can use my creativity to preserve those through my writing.
I love you, Mom!
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