Mommy and Me

This has always been one of my favorite pictures of my mom and me. It was taken in December of 1975. Mom and Dad were the youth group sponsors at our church and every December we put up the manger scene and a huge cedar tree decorated with lights. These symbols of the season stood on the corner lot of our church next to the highway. We took everything down, packed it away and burned all the dried greenery and the tree in a huge bonfire at our annual church-sponsored New Year's Eve party.

My mom is a woman of strong faith. She is a living example of loving strength. Mom is a pragmatic woman and has self-discipline that puts me to shame. She has always been the anchor in my life. Mom is my best friend, my closest confidant and the person who can cut me the deepest with just a look. I love her with every fiber of my being.

I am Mom's oldest child. She tells me that she was just a child when she had me, that she had no idea what she was doing as a young mother and that she never ceases to be amazed at how well I've turned out. When I was barely a month old, my dad began to have horrible, terrifying seizures that only occurred when he was sleeping. He was eventually diagnosed with epilepsy. Mom says she spent the first year of my life praying that both her husband and her child would sleep peacefully through the night.

My mom was and still is a tom boy. For some reason, God blessed her with a little girl who refused to wear anything but a dress. Preferably a pink dress with ruffles and a bow tie in the back. Battles were fought over my clothing choices. Who won? Well, my mom has pictures of me taken on a hike to the creek on our farm. I am wearing a lovely striped, sleeveless dress with appropriate hiking shoes. While Mom loved baseball, basketball and camping, her daughter loved dolls, tea sets and her pink bedroom. To this day I am teased by my athletic Mom and siblings about my baseball throwing ability. I throw like a girl.....big time.

Though we have always had some major differences in our likes and dislikes, Mom did manage to leave her mark on me. I inherited her lovely singing voice, her independent spirit, her love of solitude, her love of nature and her frankness among many other things. And as we've both grown up together, our differences only serve to complement our relationship. Neither of us is perfect, but that just makes us love each other more.