My Mother

Thành Tâm Sưu Tầm

After 21 years of marriage, my wife wanted me to take another woman out to
dinner and a movie. She said, “I love you, but I know this other woman loves you
and would love to spend some time with you.”

The other woman that my wife wanted me to visit was my MOTHER, who has been a
widow for 19 years, but the demands of my work and my three children had made it
possible to visit her only occasionally.

That night I called to invite her to go out for dinner and a movie. “What’s
wrong, are you well,” she asked? My mother is the type of woman who suspects
that a late night call or a surprise invitation is a sign of bad news. “I
thought that it would be pleasant to spend some time with you,” I responded.
“Just the two of us.” She thought about it for a moment, and then said, “I would
like that very much.” That Friday after work, as I drove over to pick her up I
was a bit nervous.

When I arrived at her house, I noticed that she, too, seemed to be nervous
about our date. She waited in the door with her coat on. She had curled her hair
and was wearing the dress that she had worn to celebrate her last wedding
anniversary. She smiled from a face that was as radiant as an angel’s. “I told
my friends that I was going to go out with my son, and they were impressed,” she
said, as she got into the car.

“They can’t wait to hear about our meeting.” We went to a restaurant that,
although not elegant, was very nice and cozy. My mother took my arm as if she
were the First Lady. After we sat down, I had to read the menu. Her eyes could
only read large print. Half way through the entries, I lifted my eyes and saw
Mom sitting there staring at me. A nostalgic smile was on her lips. “It was I
who used to have to read the menu when you were small,” she said. “Then it’s
time that you relax and let me return the favor,” I responded.

During the dinner, we had an agreeable conversation- -nothing extraordinary
but catching up on recent events of each other’s life. We talked so much that we
missed the movie. As we arrived at her house later, she said, “I’ll go out with
you again, but only if you let me invite you.” I agreed. “How was your dinner
date?” asked my wife when I got home. “Very nice. Much more so than I could have
imagined,” I answered.

A few days later, my mother died of a massive heart attack. It happened so
suddenly that I didn’t have a chance to do anything for her. Some time later, I
received an envelope with a copy of a restaurant receipt from the same place
mother and I had dined. An attached note said: “I paid this bill in advance. I
wasn’t sure that I could be there; but nevertheless, I paid for two plates – one
for you and the other for your wife.

You will never know what that night meant for me. I love you, son.” At that
moment, I understood the importance of saying in time: “I LOVE YOU” and to give
our loved ones the time that they deserve. Nothing in life is more important
than your family. Give them the time they deserve, because these things cannot
be put off till “some other time.”

Somebody said it takes about six weeks to get back to normal after you’ve had
a baby, that somebody doesn’t know that once you’re a mother, “normal” is
history.

Somebody said you learn how to be a mother by instinct, that somebody never
took a three-year-old shopping.

Somebody said being a mother is boring, that somebody never rode in a car
driven by a teenager with a driver’s permit.

Somebody said if you’re a “good” mother, your child will “turn out good”,
that somebody thinks a child comes with directions and a guarantee.

Somebody said “good” mothers never raise their voices, that somebody never
came out the back door just in time to see her child hit a golf ball through the
neighbor’s kitchen window.

Somebody said you don’t need an education to be a mother, that somebody never
helped a fourth grader with his math.

Somebody said you can’t love the fifth child as much as you love the first,
that somebody doesn’t have five children.

Somebody said a mother can find all the answers to her child-rearing
questions in the books, that somebody never had a child stuff beans up his nose
or in his ears.

Somebody said the hardest part of being a mother is labor and delivery, that
somebody never watched her “baby” get on the bus for the first day of
kindergarten, or on a plane headed for military “boot camp.”

Somebody said a mother can do her job with her eyes closed and one hand tied
behind her back, that somebody never organized seven giggling Brownies to sell
cookies.

Somebody said a mother can stop worrying after her child gets married, that
somebody doesn’t know that marriage adds a new son or daughter-in-law to a
mother’s heartstrings.

Somebody said a mother’s job is done when her last child leaves home, that
somebody never had grandchildren.

Somebody said your mother knows you love her, so you don’t need to tell her,
that somebody isn’t a mother.

God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY 2006