Today is Mothers Day, and first I would love to wish all moms a very happy day, and I hope it's all you could ever wish for.  Great day to be with your family

My Mom, Babs At About 25  (Before My Time)

This is the first Mothers Day that I have been alive, where my mom hasn't been.  Babs passed away September 25 last year at the age of one week shy of 94, so I'll give it to her.  She lived a grand life for about 92 years and the last two or so, well were not near as good as the previous 9 decades. Her physical health was always remarkable, but her memory became the problem, and then so on and so forth.

Babs At A Ball Game With My SIL Erin A Couple Years Ago!

My mom was a college professor for most of her life. A teacher of speaking, singing, acting, directing, and painting, anything to do with the arts.  She also made sure we all were exposed to all of that to hopefully become well rounded adults. I wasn't always happy about that as a kid, but I am now. Teaching is what she knew.

Examples Of Her Work

In the end though, she forgot she did all that.  She forgot about the plays she was in, the songs she sang, and the friends she did it all with for 50 plus years.  She forgot about the incredible paintings she created, and the ones she donated and sold. She forgot about decades worth of students that she taught at Baldwin-Wallace and the lives she changed. And the toughest one, she forgot about the historic house in Berea she loved and lived in for over 62 years on her 3 acre piece of land. She forgot about the room additions she designed and decorated, she forgot she had a home, and that was tough.

But in those final few months, when the fog made land impossible to see and it became clear that her memory would never be clear, she taught me one last thing, something important.  That life, no matter how long you get, is for living.  I never felt that the things she loved so much would be stripped from her mind. Did she deserve better than that?  We all do.  I know we all owe a death, and we all die of something, but many times sadly, it's not like in the movies. 

So her final lesson for me, and us, was to live and live well. Enjoy the people in your life more than before, bacause as my family learned, it really is fragile.  Do the things you like to do more often, with the people you love, and do them with a joy that is envious to others.  I do those things, and I have people in my life that do the same.  I feel we may think we all know that, but many times we need a wakeup call.

Knowing my mom gave me a keener sense of life not only when she was alive and well, but when things weren't so good and it was clear that we were far closer to the end than the beginning. She was a teacher till September 24th of last year. I'm thankful I learned all the things I did from her, back in the day, yesterday, and this day.

At first I missed her really being her.  But as I thought about it more after a few months of sunrises, even though things were very differenta the end, she still was really her. Even though she may not have known it, she was always teaching.

Thanks for every lesson, Babs.  Happy Mothers Day!

(Cover Pic me and Babs long ago)