My mom was a force of nature, with a drive inside her that outworked the Energizer Bunny. She had a supernatural work ethic forged by life on a dairy farm in the '40 and '50s, a life very unlike our own. Imagine this.
2 times every day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, for the first 18 years of my mom's life, everything stopped because the cows had to be milked. If you didn't, those bovine mothers that were your livelihood could get sick and die.
Let me put that another way. If you lived on a dairy farm, you never had a single day off. No weekends. No holidays. No vacations. If you lived on a dairy farm, there was no whining or laziness tolerated because between milking times, there was so much else to do.
My mom often spoke of growing and then canning their fruits and vegetables. She raised and then slaughtered chickens. She made her own clothes from the flour sack material.
But her most weighty responsibility was raising her 3 younger siblings when her parents were working. On top of that, the youngest, my uncle, had hydrocephalus and needed extra help. From a very early age, she was left to feed, change, discipline, bathe, tutor, and entertain them.
I believe the weight of this responsibility bloomed into a calling to care for children.
From there on, every child that came within her orbit became her kid, her responsibility, her calling. This, I believe, was her most significant gift to the world. My mother, the force of nature, became a high school English teacher and a force of good for many children, touching thousands of lives over her 81 years.
And she still managed to be my best friend and my rock. My daughters and I are here today because my mom loved us fiercely and protectively. After Alzheimer's took over her brain, we switched roles, and I had the privilege of caring for her.
She passed away a few weeks ago. Since then, I've been reflecting on my own calling--to help others by being the calm in a storm--which is poignant because my mom was a force of nature.
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