My mother was a great woman. Her name may never grace the pages of history books, but nonetheless, she was a great woman.
In her best days, there was hardly a soul alive that could make a home warmer and more inviting than she could. I vividly remember, as I am sure many of you do, the week-long open house events that my parents would host at Christmas time. Take a moment and picture a large evening party at your home, and imagine the time and effort you would put into something like that: food, drinks, decorations, entertainment, cleaning, and all of the other tasks that are necessary for a successful party. Multiply that effort by seven and you can start to grasp the amount of hard work that went into these Christmas celebrations. Nearly every free waking hour of hers between Thanksgiving and Christmas would be devoted toward making sure that everything was perfect for the holidays. These Christmases were just one example of the efforts that my mom took to make sure all the needs and comfort of our home and family were properly tended to.
As much work as that seems, my mom was never content to be just a homemaker. She was an accomplished career woman as well. She always worked caring for others, and excelled at her work. When she injured her back and could not continue her work caring for the mentally handicapped, she started over from scratch as an orthodontic assistant in a private orthodontic practice, becoming the doctor’s right-hand woman within a couple of years, learning her own job and the jobs of all around her, even doctor’s job to some degree. She accomplished a great many achievements during her career, and tuned the efficiency of the practice with the skill of a master engineer. Keep in mind that while she had her health, she did all of this while never dropping a ball in keeping our family home.
Her efforts did not stop there. In addition to all of this, she always found time to be the best of mothers to me. She was always kind, gentle, and caring toward me, unless my behavior required her to be stern and hard. She was almost always fair, and was always willing to listen if I felt she was being otherwise. She constantly nurtured my intellect from a very early age, making sure that my every curiosity in learning was fulfilled. When I started having questions that she could not answer, wanted knowledge that she could not provide, she ensured that I had every possible tool at my disposal for continued self-learning. I recall one time when one of my school teachers scolded me for learning something that had not yet been covered in her lesson plan. Boy, did my mom give that teacher what-for, and put her in her place in front of the school principal. She made it very clear that I was not to be discouraged.
I have so many cherished memories of my mother. It would likely take months or years to list them all. Holidays, family vacations, day trips, Saturday movie nights, all of them were memorable. Even simple shopping trips were seen as an opportunity for bonding and learning. We were truly inseparable companions until my teen years, when biology kicked in and I started asserting my independence as a young man.
Everything I am today, I owe to her and the seeds of knowledge and caring that she planted within me. I will truly miss her presence, her wisdom, and her love, and I deeply regret that she had to leave us so soon. She would not want us to mourn our loss for very long, though. She would rather that we celebrate her life and the many ways in which she touched our souls. She would want us to follow her example and continue to lead rich, full lives in which we take all of the gifts of love and nurture that she has given us, and pay them forward to all of our loved ones.
My mom found her greatness in motherhood, in her career, and in her home. While the written history of man largely forgets efforts such as these, we, her family and friends, will always remember, and we will always know that it is the unsung greatness such as my mom’s that enables others to make their mark in history.