Anyone who knows my mother knows what a wonderful, sweet caring person she is. My mother is a tireless giver. She always places the wants and needs of others before her wants and needs. My mother is smart and I have no doubt that she would have been wildly successful had she chosen to enter the business field. But my mother chose to be a wife, mother and homemaker. Over the 56 years that I have lived, I have not, nor did my brothers or my father, ever leave her home in the morning regardless of the hour that she did not have breakfast prepared, or the lateness of the hour of our return that there was not dinner prepared. Yes, she is a giver.
She is a tireless caretaker of all our family – from grandmothers to grandchildren. She made daily trips to the nursing home caring for the needs of her mother and mother-in-law until their passing. She took care of three boys and all their bumps, bruises and illnesses. She cared for my father after his by-pass surgery and cancer removal. And, the giving didn’t stop. There were tireless hours of all types of volunteer work at the church and meals on wheels etc. Yes, she is a giver.
There is another side to my mom that most people have never seen. My mother is stubborn, relentless, determined, and one of the meanest and fiercest fighters I have ever known!
You see, I have watched my mother battle back from a stroke. I have watched my mother battle back from having her kidney removed. I have watched my mother endure the awful side effects of radiation and chemotherapy to beat lymphoma. And I have watched her determination to beat it again 12 years later when it struck again. I have watched my mother fight to recover from major back surgery that her doctors said she would probably never recover enough to walk again. She has proven them wrong. Not once, but twice! The surgery had to be redone a year and half later due to failure of some of the rods that were inserted.
Yes, I have seen a side of my mother that most have never seen. What I have seen makes me the proudest son a mother can have! There is a spirit in her that few possess and we all wish we had more of it.
Yes, I am building on my father’s legacy. But our company, Carbine & Associates, made it thirty years because of my mother’s resolve and unyielding spirit.
Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.