My Mom was a great Mom. She unselfishly gave all she had to her family. She never wanted to appear that she was a bother. Unfortunately, that may have been one of the reasons she hid her and ignored her symptoms for so long. Growing up, I don’t recall a time when she wasn’t there. When we were little she worked nights and we hung with Dad. Then she stopped working for a while to take care of us. When my baby sister went off to school, she worked part time to make a little extra money for herself. However, we were always her priority. She taught and raised us to be strong, independent women. We each took a different path than she did, but she instilled in us what was truly important in this life, family.
Then along came grandkids. As if she did not shine enough as a Mom, she sparkled as a Grammy. She was born for this role. When I was pregnant with Robbie, I had been researching daycares. I was planning to go back to work and was spending my time researching a good fit for my baby. Well, that boy wasn’t even 12 hours old and she marched into that hospital room and said “No grandchild of mine is going to daycare.” Ohhh.. okay then, Mom. She was not one you really wanted to argue with over certain things. At that moment, there grew a bond between her and her grandkids that will never be broken, even in death.
Robbie was her first. The moon and stars revolved around this child. He could do no wrong in her eyes. He adored her. For the first year of his life, she watched him 4 days a week. A year later, I started a new job and he went to “school” for a couple of days. She didn’t like that. LOL! Nicholas made his appearance 3.5 half years later. Again, she was willing to take him on, as she did Robbie. To help ease the work and because he really needed it socially, Robbie went off to pre-school and pre-k. Neither Robbie or my Mom was overjoyed at that. Both felt they were being ripped apart from each other. They got over it though. Well.. maybe… 🙂
I will be forever grateful for the bond my boys shared with my Mom. I will be forever grateful I had the honor to call her Mom.
