pieces and ponderings

It’s the day after Mother’s Day and thoughts about the mothers in my life still bounce about in my head.  Yesterday I went to church with my family and at the beginning of the service we watched a video of a man interviewing job candidates for a job with a list of requirements that no one human could ever fulfill.  Except… women all over the world carry out the tasks every day that were listed in the job description presented in the interviews.  These women are moms.  My eyes welled up with tears as the interviewer revealed to the multiple interviewees that the job description was for the job of “mom.”

I watched the video and thought about how I love being a mom…and I thought about my mom and my grandmothers who influenced my life so much.  I’m thankful for each one of them.

My maternal grandmother grew up in eastern Tennessee, the daughter of a farmer.  She worked hard all of her life.  There was not a physical task that she was afraid to undertake.  She didn’t have a lot of education.  Her handwriting was always hard for me to read.  But she knew a lot about a lot of things, like growing any kind of plant.  She had the greenest of green thumbs.  The yard around her house across the street from ours was full of all kinds of flowers and trees.  She could take a cutting from any plant, put it into the ground and it would grow at her command.  It was amazing to me, even as a child.  I did not inherit her green thumb.

My grandmother like to play ball with me when I was little.  She would throw a rubber ball and I would catch it and toss it back.  She was always up for buying a new large in diameter bouncy ball, that we would bounce back and forth.  A love for bouncing balls I did inherit.

My maternal grandmother liked a good April’s Fool prank.  I remember listening to her stories about pranks while lying beside her in bed after the lights in our house were turned out     for the night.  Her stories made me laugh.

This grandmother of mine loved music and liked doing the twist.  She taught me how to ride my bike and let me and my cousin stay up late at her house watching Elvis movies or westerns.  She loved her children and grandchildren, but didn’t always know how to express that love.  She was a simple woman who appreciated hard work and sitting outside on a big swing in the evening.

My paternal grandmother was also a native of eastern Tennessee.  She had a gentle southern Tennessee accent.  She was a baker of breads and cakes and sometimes when I smell sausage cooking the mornings, I feel as though I’m walking into her kitchen.  She took a lot of meals to many people in her community.  She could talk to anyone and was charming with her southern graces.

This grandmother was tall and loved wearing sandals.  I remember her taking me to feed the ducks at a small lake near her home.  She loved a good cup of coffee and visiting with my mom.  She adored my grandfather and he adored her right back.  The two of them taught me how to bowl and play golf.  She would let me spend hours and hours running through her shrubberies playing games with the neighbor boy who lived across the street.  She taught me how to play a game of rummy and let me teach her how to play crazy eights, though she would mention that I sometimes changed the rules a bit during the game.

She is what comes to my mind when I think of a southern lady.

And then there is my momma, the lady who most inspired me to want to be a momma myself.  My mom was and is a hard worker like her mother before her.  She can manage a budget with amazing capability.  When I was young, she typically wore pretty shirt dresses and nice shoes.  I used to think that when I became a mom, I would have to trade in my favorite blue jeans and sneakers for shirt dresses and dress shoes.  Thankfully, times and styles changed and I have done ok mothering in my blue jeans and tennis shoes.

I have watched my mom do whatever she needed to do to care for her family.  She loves her children and grandchildren with the utmost loyalty.  She is proud of every one of them.

Moms can be amazing women and I am blessed to have watched three of those amazing moms up close.