Dearest Mother

Editor: As Mother’s Day approaches, we can’t help but appreciate her unconditional love for her children with expressions of thankfulness. We are amazed at the extraordinary sacrifices she makes that seem so ordinary.

Each of us was born totally helpless and dependent, and depended on our mother to raise us to independence. The number of diapers used were not counted. The amount of washing that was done seems immeasurable. Feeding on demand, sleeping and waking at odd hours seemed now to be so unreasonable but mother seemed to tolerate it.

Her vision for us was that we grow up to be responsible and respectable citizens contributing positively to our society. Often the path that we take was mapped out by mother. We adopt many of her ways and remember many of her teachable moments. We make the mistakes she warned us about and suffer the consequences needlessly. In the final analysis, we learned our lessons and looking at our lives, we did not turn out all that bad. Mother is proud of her child, and we treasure all the instructions we receive.

She was wise and chose the school, church, and community groups to help to raise us. In many cases grandma and good neighbours provided good support. While a price cannot be put on the cost of raising us, we can repay some of it by ensuring that mother’s needs are met in her senior years. For those of us who think that we are motherless, there is another mother out there who would appreciate a child like us and is deserving of our attention. Let us make this Mother’s Day and every day special for Mother.

Anthony G. Stewart, PhD