Mom - 92 Years of Giving

My son, Chad and I just returned from a visit with my dear mother who is 92 years old. People say, "Don't you mean grandmother?" No, she's my mother. (I think I would know! :) The next comment, is always, "Wow!" She is so much more than a number. The number only represents the years of living, and in my mother's case it represents the years of giving. I learned giving from my mother and I intend to do it for at least 92 years, because I want to be just like her.

92 years of mothering 7 children - all of them a handful! If you know me, you know this is true of me and I'm the youngest so imagine the others! 92 years of caring, loving, and giving to so many - inside and outside of our family. Cooking, cleaning. living, and sharing her life. 92 years of faithful church going, praying, serving, and loving God. 92 years of being the greatest example of the Christ's Fruits of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, meekness, self-control. That is my mother! See, she is more than old. She is an antique - a priceless one to all 7 of us, our kids and our kid's kids and their kids. She isn't only a great-great grandmother, she is a GREAT great-great grandmother. Ask any of her kid's kids or their kids.

I have watched her and dad move from a nice middle-class home to a smaller home to an apartment and into an elderly care apartment where she has lived alone since dad's death in 2001. My trip to Indiana was see her new "home" where she now shares a very small room in a Catholic nursing home. One day her whole existence will be summed up by a paragraph in an obituary column and though I know this is coming, I will never be ready for it.

I hate seeing her there. It was painful. She still has so much to give. She has served for years, and now she MUST be served. She CAN still do most things for herself, and doesn't really understand why she must now be served. They cook her meals when she is a much better cook than they are. They clean around her when she is a much better housekeeper than they are. This is so different for her, but knowing her like we do, we believe that she will find a way to give to those who give to her, because she lives to give.

Mom has "spent" her life giving. In the theme of Givers Gain (the March 2009 leadership conference), she is the greatest earthly example of this important life concept. My mother inspired me yesterday; she inspires me today, and she will forever be my inspiration. Over the years I have written many tributes to her, though the last one will be the most difficult, there will be one constant theme, that of giving. . . 92 years of it and counting.