We recently moved my 87 year old mother into an Assisted Living facility. It wasn't really a sad or bad thing - just an acceptance of time passing - what is. While we were packing up her apartmentI ran across the note, pictured above, taped rather haphazardly to the back of a framed photo that was on top of her bookcase. My mother was never one to keep my things from childhood. Photos yes, butnot sentimental mementos or any of my artwork. So when I saw this note that she had saved for over 50 years, I knew it must have held a special place in her heart.Putting an elderly parent in an Assisted Living or Nursing Home will inevitably throw you into a backtrack through time. As I ran across the note and starting thinking about growing up, I not only thought about my mother, but all the other motherly figures who were important during different periods of my life too. My grandma, aunts, godmother, my friend's mother, neighbors - the list is a long one.
My mother never pretended to be supermom. She was outstanding at some things - ahead of her time really - good at others, and fell short on others. But what for what she didn't manage to do, there was always someone from that cluster of women who was there to fill inthe gaps of my evergrowing knowledge base.Definitely a divine plan of some sort. So to all those women, and especially to my own mom - cheers!
Thanks a bunch!
Enjoy your Mother's Day!
*as a post note - I open my sketch book, thumb through the pages, and what do I see? All these years later and I'm still drawing flowers - over and over and over. I guess some things never change!
~ diane fergurson
