Mom's Day

My Mother’s Gift

I am the oldest of three girls; never been married, never had kids. My two sisters, on the other hand, found husbands, made babies and faced the day-to-day challenges of balancing work, life and family as well as the joys and treasured moments that blossom throughout. Sometimes I feel cheated that I was dealt a different hand than my sisters and resent the fact that I didn’t have my turn in sharing these same challenges and experiences along side them, but most times, I take comfort in the trade-off of limitless freedom and independence.

When I am around my sisters and their children, I am always aware of the endless levels of patience, love and devotion that they shower upon my nieces and nephews. Sometimes I sit watching them in awe wondering whether or not I would have had the fortitude and strength that they have if I had also become a mother. It wasn’t until recently that I realized I, too, would have been as good a mother as they have proven to be. At the heart of this realization was my ability to clearly see that all the good traits my sisters exhibit as mothers, and those that I believed I could also provide, didn’t just come to us naturally; they came from our mother.

My mother gave us the gift of a lifetime. It was one of the most important gifts a mother could bestow upon her children; the gift of deep down, whole-hearted, and unconditional love. It is this gift that helped mold us into the women we are today. Our strength, courage, generosity, compassion and endless giving of ourselves are the products of years of her successful nurturing from boo-boos and Band-aids to bras and boyfriends.

We were not, by any means, perfect children. We learned the hard way; rule after rule, lesson after lesson, and by punishment when it was warranted. Through the easy times and the hard ones, we learned to trust and believe in ourselves and others, treat others as we wanted to be treated and to never put ourselves first. The gift she gave us is the core of what makes us who we are today. We are able to stay true to ourselves because of the ideals forged through the love that was endlessly showered upon us by our mother. Those ideals are now being handed down by my sisters to their children and hopefully for years to come.

Thanks, Mom. We love you…