08/08/2026
You never think about your mom one day dying as a kid... at least I didn't. I remember when I was young I thought of my mom as a super woman. She was short, only 5'4" so she had to climb up on chairs and hold her balance on her tippy toes to dust the ceiling fans. I remember in my young mind thinking, Wow! How does she do that and not get afraid of falling down?
My mom was a doer, and maybe that's where I get some of my doingness from. I can remember when we moved to Peru, IL, and she wanted a new kitchen. They didn't have the money for a kitchen back then, so mom took the cabinets apart, stripped them down to nothing, sanded them and stained them to her liking. I don't remember her asking for help, she just did her thing, knowing what she wanted she just went after it.
She went through her phases of wall paper too. I can remember her renting one of those steamers to remove the paper from the wall, then she'd go through the whole process of papering it again, making sure the seams were lined up just right. I never understood the fascination with that.
When I was young, I never considered a life without my mom. I just figured she would always be there. When I was a teenager I went through my phase, as I assume many teenage girls do, where they just can't stand their mom and hate her. When I ended up pregnant at 18, instead of casting me away, my mom embraced the new journey with me. She helped me in everyway that should could. She watched him and cared for him that first year of life, which helped me out tremendously financially.
And every single time I left my ex-husband and wanted to move back home, she welcomed me back with open arms, even when I had two babies in tow. And every time I went back to him, although with a hesitation, she supported my decision. When I finally left him for the last time, again, she welcomed me home and supported me as much as she could while I went to community college trying to make a better life for me and my children. When I moved away to go to NIU, she helped me pack, and she and my dad drove the moving truck to DeKalb and back.
She has helped me move into and out of many apartments and houses, transitions from being a teenager, to a young mom who was married, to a young mom who was divorced, to a young mom going to school with two kids. She has always been there, never asking for anything. Just doing her thing the best way she knew how.
I don't know how much more time my mom has on this earth, she's continuing to live her life the way that she wants to, even if I don't sometimes agree with her choices. But I do know that each day that she is still here and for every day after, I will will love her and pay gratitude to her and everything she's done for me to help me get here.
Sending love to my mom today, as she faces a difficult life/heath decision. 💜
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