THANK YOU, MOM....

 

A few years ago, more than likely when I was out walking while on a layover for my work as a flight attendant with United Airlines, I purchased a small hardback volume titled, THANK YOU, MOM by Gregory E. Lang.  And I’m pretty sure I probably purchased it from a bargain table at a bookstore, as I would never have paid the $11.95 price embedded right into the cover of the book.  But the book was short.  An easy read. The pithy little statements of thanks—all preceded with the same “Thank you, Mom”—reflected what Mr. Lang wrote in the introduction of this little tome. 

He said, among other things, that as the years have gone by, he has increasingly begun to realize that the opportunities and support his mother gave to him made it so he could have the fulfilling life he has now.  He confessed that even though he “now recognize[s] the countless things” his mother did for him, he did not often show appreciation for all the things she did at the time.  Hence, the reason he decided to write this book.  Thankfully, he wrote in the introduction, that even though it was late, his mother was still alive so he could tell her—and have no regrets later that he never did.

This kind of stuff really resonates with me.  So, while I was reading the book, I began to think of some of the things my mother taught me and gave to me that I am pretty sure I didn’t express any thanks to her before her death in 1984.

At the time I discovered this little book, I was publishing a monthly newsletter for my children with articles about their growing up years and some insight into my own history now and then with little blips about personal experiences.  Over the previous few months, I had included some of my mother’s journal entries (all on little scraps of paper instead of written in the bound journals with empty pages which were in the same box).  My kids liked that and wanted more. This surprising book was a prompt to share with my children some of the wonderful legacy my mother left to me through her constant care.

My little adventure expressing a posthumous thank you to my mother lasted several months from the February 2012 through the December 2012 issues of The Nichols Family News.  Not that this was an exhaustive list.  It was just some of the things which my mother had taught me that I didn’t have to think too long and hard about.  They had merely become an ingrained part of my life experiences.

“Thank you, Mom, for keeping a youthful spirit; it made you fun to be around and made your appearance and demeanor youthful, too.”

 Here’s another one with explanation so you can understand what my mother meant as “inequality”:

Thank you, Mom, for teaching me that not everything is created equal.  Even if something has the same utility, it doesn’t necessarily mean that item is interchangeable with a similar piece.  You taught me that it was important to pair the job at hand with the appropriate items.  Not only for facility of use, but also to make for pleasing the eye. (Examples: small pan for small cooking on the small burner. Serving spoons for food at the table instead of the wooden spoon used to stir the pot on the stove.  Or NOT to sit down at the table in June and have a red satin Christmas cloth, layered with pink and white quilted Easter placements and brown dishes.  NO! NO! NO! to that kind of combo!  Just because we needed a cloth and some dishes on the table, that didn’t mean to use the first thing that came out of the cupboard!)

There were other thank you sentiments, too, which I included in those newsletter articles..

… for preparing me to leave home.

… for your example of remembering others on their special occasions with a small gift.

…for being someone I could look up to.

…for pushing me to do the things I didn’t want to do but needed to do.

…for taking the time to play with me and have fun together.

…for teaching me there CAN be too much of a good thing.

…for teaching me about frugality.

…for teaching me about hospitality.

…for teaching me about the “Spirit of Christmas” in our yearly celebration of Christ’s birth.”

What a wealth my mother bestowed upon me!

So, for this Mother's Day 37 years after she died...

THANK YOU, MOM!