Mom

It has been a very long time since I have posted anything.  Most of you know that I was with my mother for 5 weeks as she lost her 4 year battle with colon cancer.  As I sit here and try to find the words to do her justice, I am reminded of trying to find the right words to say during her memorial service.  Even though I feel they lacked the beauty and poetry she deserved, they come from my heart.  Here is a version of what I said:

(Mom at Mt. St. Helen's in June on a trip with my brother and his family).

Who has NOT been lucky enough to have tasted my mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies?  Anybody?  Not many--I'm sorry for you if you haven't.  A group of my friends and I were discussing her cookies and what makes them so special--given that it's essentially a Toll House recipe--and we came up with the theory that it's because they're made with a special kind of love and generosity that exemplified my mother, that made them so epic...apparently an extra cup of sugar helps, too.

(mom in the kitchen--when she was in her 40's--with her beloved Kitchen Aid mixer!  I love her '70's styling.) 

My parents had an open arm/open home policy and so 

 many people through the years experienced the warmth and love of being welcomed into our family and home.  When I sent out an email to my Facebook friends who had grown up with her through her involvement with Girl Scouts, various church choirs, and the AFS exchange program, telling them what was happening with her illness, I received variations of the same email:

"Your mom was my mom".

"Your mom was my 2nd mom".

"Your mom was like my mom".

I've happily had to share her with so many people through the years!

(My parents 40th anniversary--they're together now!).

I was so blessed to be able to spend her last 5 weeks with her.  She gave me a strength I never knew I had.

I knew I wanted to say some words about my mom but I thought: what could I say that would do justice for the remarkable woman she was.  However, all I have to do is look around at the people here and see how many lives she has touched and feel the love for my mother and realize it's already said.

You see.  She wasn't "like my mom" or "my second mom".  She was my mom.  And I'm the luckiest daughter in the world!

 (Taken right after Thanksgiving, when she received her beautiful finished quilt).

A friend of mine sent me a card with this poem called "The Traveler" by James Dillet Freeman:

She has put on invisibility.

Dear Lord, I cannot see--

But this I know, 

Although the road ascends

And passes from my sight,

That there will be no night;

That You will take her gently by the hand

And lead her on

Along the road of life that never ends,

And she will find it is not death but dawn.

I do not doubt that You are there as here,

And You will hold her dear...

Dear Lord, I thank You for the faith that frees,

The love that knows it cannot lose it's own;

The love that, looking through the shadows, sees

That You and she and I are ever one!

Betty Louise Fogt

August 2, 1935 - December 26, 2010