I have had privilege to know a lot of great mothers and could write volumes of splendid stories about each one, but for now I’ll stick a little closer to home.
We’ve all heard that “April showers bring May flowers” and if that holds true, there should be no shortage of beautiful flowers this month. Lilacs are my perennial favorite, and when I smell them I think of Mother’s Day and my mom. My fascination with these marvelous flowers started early in life, I vividly recall one beautiful spring morning in the 1960’s when I was in second grade, it was just a few minutes before the bus came to pick me up for school. I was holding a quart fruit jar half-filled with water while Mom cut clusters of lilac blooms from our century old bush in the front yard and placed them in the jar for me to take to my school teacher. The lilacs made my teacher smile from ear to ear, and as she buried her face in the luscious lavender blooms, she breathed deeply, and said, “Oh my, aren’t they wonderful?” She then set them on the corner of her desk and gave me a wink and a big smile. This incident happened at an age I was old enough to understand and appreciate my mother’s desire to do something nice like helping me to score a home run with a teacher the other kids referred to as “mean old Mrs. So and So” … Mrs. Lewis forever treated me like a king after that. Mom knew the lilacs were just what the doctor ordered and I admired her thoughtfulness knowing she did it for me as well as for the teacher; not fully realizing it at the time Mom had given me my first lesson in politics. My popularity base expanded with Mom’s faithfulness in always providing top-notch chocolate-chip cookies for special events like Bible School and Valentine’s Day.
Every Mother’s Day I am reminded of Mom’s unconditional love and devotion, a trademark that has stood the test of time. Mom always did the best she could with what she had, and she always managed to make us feel special regardless of the circumstances and sacrificed deeply on our behalf.
To say Mom labored constantly is an understatement for sure, and looking back I wonder how she did it all. For instance, I remember my mom and my aunt killing, scalding, plucking, and cutting up over fifty chickens in one day. It was a family affair and the task started shortly after preparing Dad a good breakfast and sending him off to work. I was about six years old at the time and I can remember my Aunt Opal scolding my mom (who was then 6 months along with child) for carrying large, heavy metal tubs full of chickens and water on her hip. The work was hot and labor intensive, it was no place for the weak or faint of heart, and it didn’t end there. Eventually, those chickens ended up as part of a big home-cooked meal with the lion’s share of the food coming from our garden, the fun never ended! This along with the usual housekeeping chores like doing laundry with an old-fashioned wringer washer required lots of hands-on dedication. Back then, when most people cared about how they looked, clothes were starched and ironed by hand to keep us looking sharp and I was always well-groomed for things like Sunday School and the annual Christmas program at school. Gardening was not a hobby, it was a part of survival, and also required constant attention and hard work from planting seeds to home canning which took place in a hot kitchen in the dog days of summer long before the advent of air conditioning; and this was just the tip of the iceberg. Whoever coined the phrase “a woman’s work is never done” was talking about my mom and she stayed the course through thick and thin. I hate to sound like the guy who claimed to have walked uphill to and from school in chest deep snow when referring to her role, but mom and a host of other great mothers like her deserve to be recognized for their commitment to their families and contributing to the prosperity this nation enjoys today and it is with a heart of gratitude that I shared the above so as to note the significance and value of their contribution … priceless!
I’m sure most of us have an appreciation for all that our mothers had to do to get through the average day to day chores but to me the most memorable things I treasure were the things Mom didn’t have to do but did as a token of her love for me, my sisters, Julie and Lyra, and of course her loving husband and our father, Kenny. My wife Darlene often reminds me, “It’s the little things that count”…. how true! Mom knew our favorite foods and prepared special treat things like German chocolate cake, mouth-watering buttermilk biscuits, pineapple upside-down cake, and my personal favorite, cinnamon rolls, all were made from scratch and had no equal. When we were kids, Mom saved up pennies to buy us bubblegum at Kenney Smith’s little store in Maplewood and an occasional fudge bar ice cream treat at the small gas station in Bloom Center, life was good! Yes, Mom covered a lot of bases and did so well, and she will be the first to tell you that with a little faith in God, all things are possible. Now at seventy eight years of age she still spoils me from time to time with treats from the kitchen. I am exceedingly blessed and very thankful for the best mother a guy could ever have! Happy Mother’s Day Dorothy Clayton, Happy Mother’s Day Mom! I love you with all my heart … thank you for loving me!
