So Thankful for My Mother

Mother's Day

My mother was a great lover of my father. She adored him and treated him with great respect, kindness and care. Many are the wonderful memories of her.

She taught me to swim before I could walk. I was adopted at ten months of age and had been born with a spinal bifida and no cross muscles in my stomach. As a result I laid in the crib in the Ventura orphanage on my back the whole ten months.

I couldn't roll, sit or anything, so she took me to the ocean and got me to kick in the water. As time went on the muscles I had began to develop and became like ropes in my abdomen. Because of her, I developed to the place where I could do over a hundred leg ups and not even get winded. The result of her early care was that I was able to live a normal and healthy life.

She taught me to deep sea fish in the Pacific Ocean and to fish for trout, crappie and blue gill in Big Bear Lake. She was also an avid hunter, along with my Dad. Our life was wonderful although I was a handful to raise. But, she was up to the task.

Mom nursed my Dad as a cancerous tumor in his brain stole his life when I was twelve. She was devastated and became a horrible drunk. She married a drunk and after a short while divorced him, pulled herself together and made a life for herself. She was an astute businesswomen.

She was a witch, albeit she said, "a good witch," and, as such, hated God and Christianity. This became quite a source of contention once my wife and I received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. She even went so far as to disown me.

God in His mercy brought a lovely Nazarene lady into her life who pushed through her rough exterior and loved her with the love of God. Mom received Christ as her Savior shortly after she was diagnosed with cancer.

The Lord arranged for us to be reconciled in a most wonderful way and she moved from this life to heaven with the knowledge that we would see each other again in God's Kingdom.

Many are the sweet memories I have of her and I cannot but be thankful for what she imparted into my life. I can't wait to see her in glory and thank her for all she is to me.