A shoutout to Mom

My almost-92YO mother is living comfortably in a Coeur d’Alene rest home as another Mother’s Day approaches. She remains sharp but has trouble at times remembering some of the extended family. She has three children here who keep an eye on her. And three more who check in from California. She has been a widow for more than 40 years. She never dated after Dad was killed in a car wreck on Oct. 19, 1976. Why should I? she often says. I couldn’t find anyone better. She flunked first grade because she spoke only Portuguese. And didn’t get her high school diploma until a few years after Dad died. In her younger years, she cooked for the hired hands who worked on my father’s diaries and sometimes drove hay truck. Yet, she bird-dogged our schooling and religious upbringing, while Dad worked so hard in the cow barns and alfalfa fields. They were partners until death parted them. Now, I suspect she’s waiting to meet up with Dad again, waiting with such a sweet personality. She always asks about my two kids. And is concerned for the health of the family. As I leave her, she always asks to pray with me. She has never been rich in worldly possessions. But she is wealthier than Midas in terms of the good she has accomplished over the course of a successful life/ DFO.