For all the 'Real Life Mothers' out there, this one is for you

I remember this woman as a young married girl full of all kinds of expectations of married life. She made it very clear from the start that she expected to do her duty in this world and bring children into the marriage to raise and nurture. So it was with no surprise that she became pregnant several years into her marriage. With this new found experience came another set of circumstances she never dreamed of. The first change in her body was the morning sickness. So severe that it occurred every single day for six months of the pregnancy term. She had this same sickness with all four of her children. I remember she was so sick she couldn’t hold down a single morsel of food until late in the afternoons. Still she maintained a home and tended to her duties of wife and companion. She anticipated each birth with excitement, buying baby clothing, cribs, bottles and all the goodies. All the while I watched her in a very discomforting mood with the changes going on with her body. With each and every birth she changed from a young girl, to young mother to mother and finally on to a seasoned veteran in motherhood. I watched her toss and turn in bed trying to get comfortable with the babies pushing on her spine. I watched her raked with so much pain that I couldn’t fathom having a 9 lb. baby coming out of a young woman and still being able to smile and cry with joy upon the moment that child took its first breath and started crying. Then I witnessed a change in her as she started the rearing years, oh sure, she still had to bear the additional pregnancies that were to come in the coming years but this time they were all different. She had small dependent children with which their entire safe being depended on this person they called mother. She nurtured them through colic, childhood sickness, fevers, flu, and all the nasty things brought to her children in their young years. I witnessed her so sad and caring that she slept in the hospital with one of them with her hand in a sealed glove reaching inside a plastic bubble which was housing her child, so sick from croup that it’s life was threatened. She stayed in an upright position for 3 days with her hand reaching inside massaging and loving her child while the disease raged. I saw her up at nights standing and rocking a child in her arms trying to comfort them as sickness and childhood sufferings took hold. She would still maintain life like it was all part of job. Never complaining and always keeping a comfortable home. I watched this mother grow and develop with her children as they grew. She always did her best to keep them clean and safe. She laughed with them, had good times and was so happy in life that nothing could have been any finer than this course she had chosen. As the years went by I started to noticed a sadness in her eyes as each and every one of them grew to accountability and decided to leave her nest and seek their own lives. She would cling to each of them in any way she could and always was there if needed for anything which might come up. I watched her pace the floor waiting for a phone call from a faraway place when one of her children lay very sick and was out of her reach. She almost broke down that time, and had it not been for the priesthood I think she would have. Now as the years have passed I see a grandmother, so full of life and happiness as she looks over the family she brought to this earth. Her joy is unmatched each time they come to see grandma. She still has the caring nurturing habits that she developed those many years ago. She is a veteran mother, grandmother and it shows every time her grandchildren are in her care. She devotes all her attention to them and makes her home a beautiful fun place to come and stay. With all the changes in life we are exposed to, she is the same old mom she has always been. Sweet to the taste, soft and loving, with caring eyes and a way about her that makes you feel everything is perfect when you are with her. She continues to make her children’s lives an ongoing love that only a true mother can do. I have witnessed this for all the years she has been a mother. She has completed the course with an A plus with special honors from this personal witness. I couldn’t believe it possible but then it really happened, and so much more than can be told here. I know God has a special place in his heart for mothers such as this and the blessings that are afforded them for their merits make the whole story complete. As the saying goes there are women who bring children into this life, and then there are real Mothers created in their mother’s image, with the tender loving hand of God.

And the cycle goes on.

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