ClownCausedChaos2
Footballguy
[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Tomorrow is my Mom’s 66th birthday. Today, she lays in a Hospice bed in her home of forty years, waiting for an aggressive cancer that has taken over her body to end her life. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Mom graduated high school at 17, married my dad, and skipped her high school graduation ceremony to move to San Diego and be with him while he served his country in the Navy during the Vietnam War. She raised my oldest sister as a baby while Dad did three tours. That was the beginning of Mom living her life for her family. As the years went by, Mom and Dad had another daughter, then me. They loved us. There was never a moment when we doubted our Mom’s love for us. She may not have always liked us, but she always loved us.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]As we grew and got busier, Mom never missed a thing. My sisters did ballet, recitals, softball, and color guard. From the time I was seven years old, I did elementary school plays, speech festivals, t-ball, soccer, basketball, baseball, and football through high school. Through all of that, I can remember Mom missing exactly one event. During one particular football game, the rain and wind was so bad that the band, the cheerleaders, the student section, and most of the fans left. But at the end of the game, there was Mom.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Dad coached high school baseball and football for twenty years. This was before the days of cell phones, so she never knew exactly when he would be coming home on game nights. Yet, she always had dinner waiting for him and kept warm. Don’t get me wrong: Mom was a great wife, but never a Stepford wife. There was a mutual respect between my parent and my father was always grateful towards her. He thanked her for the dinners. Mom had enough pride and individuality that if he would have ever barked at her about dinner, he would have worn it and it would have been the last time she cooked for him. He knew it, too.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]More years passed and she became a grandmother. And she was the best at that, too. She was an active and fun grandmother. She played and wrestled with her six grandsons. She brought them gifts, she spoiled them. She got them tired and gave them sore bellies from the chocolate and candy, then left my sisters and I to deal with them. She called it “payback” for the crap we gave her growing up, and she did it all with a grin. If we were ever in a pinch and in need of a babysitter, she was always available. A grandchild could wake up sick on a day when you had to be to work and no babysitter was available, and you could call Mom at 6 AM. She would hop out of bed and be there to help. And she never missed any of their events, either.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]She loved us. And until she takes her last breath sometime this weekend, somewhere in her, she will still love us. And we will always love her. They say that nobody is perfect and Mom wasn’t. But damn, was she close.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Mom graduated high school at 17, married my dad, and skipped her high school graduation ceremony to move to San Diego and be with him while he served his country in the Navy during the Vietnam War. She raised my oldest sister as a baby while Dad did three tours. That was the beginning of Mom living her life for her family. As the years went by, Mom and Dad had another daughter, then me. They loved us. There was never a moment when we doubted our Mom’s love for us. She may not have always liked us, but she always loved us.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]As we grew and got busier, Mom never missed a thing. My sisters did ballet, recitals, softball, and color guard. From the time I was seven years old, I did elementary school plays, speech festivals, t-ball, soccer, basketball, baseball, and football through high school. Through all of that, I can remember Mom missing exactly one event. During one particular football game, the rain and wind was so bad that the band, the cheerleaders, the student section, and most of the fans left. But at the end of the game, there was Mom.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]Dad coached high school baseball and football for twenty years. This was before the days of cell phones, so she never knew exactly when he would be coming home on game nights. Yet, she always had dinner waiting for him and kept warm. Don’t get me wrong: Mom was a great wife, but never a Stepford wife. There was a mutual respect between my parent and my father was always grateful towards her. He thanked her for the dinners. Mom had enough pride and individuality that if he would have ever barked at her about dinner, he would have worn it and it would have been the last time she cooked for him. He knew it, too.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]More years passed and she became a grandmother. And she was the best at that, too. She was an active and fun grandmother. She played and wrestled with her six grandsons. She brought them gifts, she spoiled them. She got them tired and gave them sore bellies from the chocolate and candy, then left my sisters and I to deal with them. She called it “payback” for the crap we gave her growing up, and she did it all with a grin. If we were ever in a pinch and in need of a babysitter, she was always available. A grandchild could wake up sick on a day when you had to be to work and no babysitter was available, and you could call Mom at 6 AM. She would hop out of bed and be there to help. And she never missed any of their events, either.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]She loved us. And until she takes her last breath sometime this weekend, somewhere in her, she will still love us. And we will always love her. They say that nobody is perfect and Mom wasn’t. But damn, was she close.[/SIZE]