May 12, 2024

Mother, Daddy at their 50th wedding anniversary
with their grandchildren

May 12, 2024

Mothers Day

Today is the same as any other day except I have thought about my precious mother many times. My brother wrote a poem for her about her. It was so loving and sweet. He was not a child at the time, but a grown, married man with children. He wrote songs but I had not known he wrote poems. It meant so much to her. Our family did not show emotion or express love openly, but his poem was humorous as well as loving.

I wish I could post it here, but maybe another time.

Ann Lamott wrote her opinion of this holiday and she doesn't like it. It is a sad day for many people and for years I felt sad on Mother's Day. I stopped going to church on this day each year because I felt so bad when all the mothers were asked to stand and I was not among them. That was when I was much younger. Today I don't feel that way. Today I celebrate in my heart the most wonderful mother anyone could have and think of how she loved me and kept me safe when despair overcame me, when I lost faith in myself or when I needed someone to talk with about my future, someone who always had my back. I missed her most when Barry died. But she was already buried in the cemetery on the hill. 

My mother as a young woman

The end of a delightful weekend, beginning of a beautiful week

Sunday was Mothers' Day and although I have no children born of my body, I have had some wonderful children to nurture and love in my life. 

One of them never forgets to send me a sweet and loving card on Mother's Day. It feels good to know that I have had a positive impact on someone's life, especially someone I care for. It pleases me, too, that she appreciates her aunt who loves her like a daughter.  

My friend Joan and I enjoyed a delightful Mother's Day brunch together at one of our more upscale restaurants. We had not sat face-to-face in over a year, so I was happy when she called and invited me to this lovely affair. We were given a large bouquet of flowers after our meal. Like me, Joan lives alone since her husband passed away some years ago, and we face many of the same challenges in life. She is a fine poet and an active member of our writers' network. It was fun to laugh with her again.

 

Flowers I received from the Ridges 

My sister drove me home from her house on Thursday and stayed with me until Saturday. 

I had spent two weeks with Gay and Stu as I healed from my recent fall. I tease them saying their house is Moring's Resort because they pamper me and care for Lexie as well when we are there. I am so, so blessed to have my sister, Gay. And, we enjoy being together just as we did when we were kids.

I am happy to say that I am once again walking without help and feeling good. I now have much respect for those who must depend on walkers and wheelchairs and still manage on their own. I look forward to the coming weeks and getting back into my regular routine. 

My friend, Michelle, and I are genealogy buffs. We spent a few hours together Saturday researching the Posey family because we both have that line in our history. She is a whizz when it comes to online research and could give the TV show some pointers, I am sure. She has discovered that she and I are distant cousins through the Posey family going back to Francis Posey who came to this country when it was being settled in the 1600s or 1700s. We both spend too much time at the computer working on genealogy.

I am once again looking for some part-time help with office work in my studio. I miss Corie, the lovely Pressley girl, who now has a full-time job. I need someone who can use a keyboard, read cursive writing, organize, and a few other things. I am over-run with paper in this world where we are supposed to be paper-free. Recently I filled three garbage bags with paper in one afternoon, and I still have much more to get rid of.

A big plus in my life is my weekly Memoir class taught on Zoom. I am proud of how well my students are learning and the wonderful stories they are sharing. Tuesday afternoons are a bright spot in my week. I will take a break from teaching this summer but plan to teach again in the fall.

I hope you all had a great Mothers' Day if you are a mother. If you have lost your mother as I have, I feel your sadness. Some who were dear mothers in my family have passed away since last May. My sympathies to their children. And my deepest sorrow for those mothers who have lost children. 

Thank you all for checking in here with me and reading my posts. I love to hear from you either with a comment on this blog or if you want to send an email to my msn.com address.  You are all special to me. May your coming week be healthy and happy. 

My mother, Lois Robison Council surrounded by those who loved her most.

Mother's Day reflections

Lois Robison Council

This past week two of my Robison cousins, my mother’s family, came for a visit. We had a great time talking about our families and especially my mother, Lois Robison Council. Rob Robison said she gave the best hugs in the world and even though he didn’t get to see her often, she always gave him a big hug and seemed to really care about him. She did care for him and kept up with him all her life.

Rob is the grandson of her oldest brother, Avon Robison. Mother was next to the youngest so there were many years between them, but they loved each other.

Mother was raised in a home filled with love and she loved most people she knew. She was a forgiving soul, too. Unlike many others I have known, she never criticized her family.  Her brothers and sisters were good people and some of their spouses were not so good to them she said, but she was not rude to anyone so she accepted them as well.

My Mother, Lois Robison Council, who was always beautiful inside and out

We knew most of our cousins as we grew up and I met Rob, who is a  second cousin, when he was a kid a few years younger than I, but not when he was an adult, that I remember. But now we are like old friends who enjoy seeing each other and talking about our Robison family history.  He lives in Arkansas now but grew up in a military family living all over. 

My g-grandfather, was John Monroe Robison, and he had many children. His son, William Henry Robison was my grandfather. Rob’s father was named Henry Robison. Henry was killed in a plane crash during WWII. He was only 23 years old. He left behind his wife pregnant with Rob.

It broke my mother’s heart when Henry died. He was close to my sister June’s age. They both graduated from Albany High School, as did I and all my siblings. We often visited Henry’s mother and father after he died. They always cried when they talked about their only son. Their house was like a shrine to Henry.

Tomorrow is Mother’s day and I am grateful, as I am every day, that I had the most understanding and caring mother anyone ever had. I knew I was loved and she was always on my side. Mother had unconditional love for the children she brought into the world. We don’t often find that anywhere else. She had so much love in her heart that it spilled over to others around her. 

I wish every child could have a mother like mine.

The Best Mother - and the Worst Mother

Today is Mother's Day. Every day should be Mother's Day. A good mother is the most valuable person in a child's life. A bad mother or a lack of a mother can have the worst possible effect on a child.

My Mother at 14, Lois Robison

Lois Robison Council

As we recently celebrated family with a gathering of my siblings and descendants of my parents, my mother's spirit was there, I know. I am convinced her purpose in life was to give her children the very best opportunity to live a happy life. She wanted me to grow up healthy because I had many childhood illnesses. She feared I would be hurt because I wore my feelings on my sleeves, and she saw how I could plummet to the depths of despair when someone hurt me. 

Like most mothers who love their children, she would have taken all pain from me and suffered it herself if she could. A good mother is selfless with her children. My friends said they wished she were their mother, not because she was easy on us, but because she was "motherly".

Not cut out for motherhood

I have seen women who don't seem to have the motherhood gene. A woman who lets a man come between her and her child is not a good mother. A woman who refuses to see that her boyfriend or husband abuses her child is a failure at motherhood.

Some mothers love their child, but don't enjoy their child. Mothers who can't show love, don't cuddle or hug a child, who are cold toward their child, teach them to be unfeeling and leave a lasting mark on that person. I have seen this behavior pass down through three generations. 

Unselfish Love

Mothers who love their children and show it, raise loving adults. That was my mother - the most loving person I have ever known. My sisters and I learned to love unselfishly. That is why on Mother's Day and every day, I think about my mother and what she did for me, gave me and taught me. Even now, after all the years she has been gone, I long to climb into her lap and feel her arms around me, smell the particular odor of her clean dress, her skin and the Ivory soap she used. Just a short time there cured most of my ills, and I am sure she would cure the sadness and sorrows of life now.

If I'd had children, I wanted to be exactly like my role model, the best mother in the whole world.