We really enjoy hearing your memories! This time we’re looking for your favorite Mother’s Day story. Perhaps, it is a memory from your childhood. Perhaps, it is a memory of an experience you had as a mom. Perhaps, your dad was also your mom and you have a memory you’d like to share about your experience. Stories can be funny and/or poignant. Please try to keep it to no more than 500 words. Upload your story in the comments section (comments are moderated so it may take a little while before your story appears) or email them to donna@recollections.biz. The contest runs through Tuesday, May 16th at midnight. Then, we’ll pick our three favorites. Each winner will receive a $40 gift certificate as a way of saying thanks for sharing your memories with us! Winners will be notified by email on Wednesday, May 17th.
Here’s a favorite story from my family’s vault.
My father always made a big deal about Mother’s Day and would be sure that my sister and I had our own card and gift to give to Mom. We were fortunate to have a very nice card and gift store in my hometown. Kent’s was the place to go for the finest Hallmark cards and beautiful but affordable knickknacks. Dad would send us up to Kent’s during the week before Mother’s Day. We were to pick out a card and gift from each of us. Once we made our choices, the nice lady behind the counter would read the note and put our purchases in ‘lay-away.’ Dad would go up on Saturday morning and pay for what we picked out. Kent’s always had our gifts wrapped in the prettiest paper with the loveliest bows or other embellishments suitable for Mother’s Day. Mom was always filled with pride and joy with our gifts and Kent’s was a big reason why.
Over the years, Mom accumulated a lot of knickknacks. Now she is living in a nursing home but on her shelf is one gift from me and one from my sister from all those many years ago.
Congratulations to Kathy R., Robert M., and Emily F.! The judge enjoyed all of the stories and we all thank you for sharing your memories with us.
Via email from Elizabeth B., Kearney, MO, Tue, May 16, 2017 10:24 am
My mother passed away last November at the age of 90. My parents had been married 71 years. My 92 year old father gets very lonely so this year I decided to spend the weekend with him for mother’s day. Our family tradition was to “shower” my mother with flowers, bedding plants, and hanging baskets for her beautiful yard. My mother had a green thumb. Growing up as a child I remember complete strangers would stop at their house just to ask if they could look at her yard and all the beautiful flower beds.
When I arrived at home to visit my father he said he wanted the yard to look as it did when my mother was living and tending to her flowers. He uses a walker now and he insisted on helping as we spent the morning weeding, raking, and planting flowers and vegetables. This is what he and mother did on a daily basis taking care of the flowers in the yard and the vegetable garden. On mother’s day I took him out for lunch after church. After lunch we visited the cemetery and placed a basket of potted flowers upon my mother’s grave for mother’s day. It was the perfect mother’s day as my father shared many great memories of when he and my mother were young and first married.
In January I had a miscarriage. It would have been my husband’s and my first child and we were so excited. We have been married over 5 years and the likelihood we will have children is slim, the pregnancy was so exciting but brief. We have both taken the loss hard. We named the unborn baby Joy, as we had found out we were expecting right around Christmastime and it brought so much joy to our hearts.
This Mother’s Day I woke to find a card on my nightstand with “Mommy” written on the front of the envelope. My husband had bought the cute card but told me the story about how this card was picked for me. He went to the store hoping to find a card that would brighten my day. He asked Joy to help him find one. As he looked through the Mother’s Day cards he picked this one up and the song I Hope You Dance came over the radio. I love that song as I am an avid dancer, it was the Mother-Son song at our wedding, and my mom had given me a book with the words and pictures as a graduation present. He knew this was the card that Joy would have wanted me to have. The card has two little mice (I have pet mice and have even rescued baby mice before), the little one giving the mama mouse a strawberry (my favorite fruit). In the background are lily of the valley (one of my favorite flowers) and a polka-dotted butterfly (I love polka-dots and my favorite animals are butterflies). On the inside it said “A little “thank you” for being my mommy, for being my friend, and for loving me always.” I keep a journal of letters that I write to Joy, just thoughts from the day or things that I would tell her if she were here with me. At the end of each letter I write “Love Always, Mommy.”
It definitely brightened my day and made me truly believe that my baby, even though I will never hold her in my arms, is still with me. She will always be a part of my life. I couldn’t believe how many of my friends wished me a happy Mother’s Day, realizing that even though my baby is in Heaven, I am still a mommy.
My memories of my mother are few. She died when I was 6 of cancer and she was pregnant with my youngest sister. She died two months after giving birth. She had five children 6 and under. She also had a full time job as a nurse. This was a busy woman.
This is such a strange thing to remember but she always had her hair fixed, high heels on and red lipstick on. I wish I could remember more but I am happy to have those memories.
She died 52 years ago in July and I still have a picture of her looking so pretty in her heels and red lipstick!
Received Fri, May 12, 2017 at 10:14 AM from Kathy R., Cripple Creek, CO
My Mom was a skilled seamstress, but I was a tomboy, and usually the two don’t mix. I do remember one particular creation that changed my opinion of dresses forever, and that I have never seen before or since.
Mom grew up in urban Chicago, amid the glamour of the 1930s, and loved design and fashion, which didn’t always easily translate later to our small farm. Determined to make my sister and I “ladies”, she tried many times to dress us up accordingly – like the white gloves for church, and the velvet and lace-trimmed fancy dresses for a special family gathering. And then there were the frilly white sundresses, which lasted only one day, after encountering neighborhood kids pitching fresh road tar onto them. That was probably the first time I ever saw Mom’s normally sweet disposition crumble.
Still, the Halloween after seeing The Nutcracker for the first time, I asked for a Clara costume, and Mom somehow agreed. The dress she designed was very unique – made entirely of bright pink crepe paper, with yards and yards of ruffles and flourishes, garnished with sequins and glitter – truly magical! The paper was probably a concession to the price of fabric, but it seemed to me a brilliant choice for a costume unlike any other. Of course, it rained torrents that night, and the dress hardly made it home, water-streaked and shredded, then hung up hopefully for a few days, and finally ingloriously thrown out.
But the memory remains even today, of something perishable that repeatedly expressed a Mom’s patience, love, and determination at the cost of many hours of careful work. It lit a spark that encouraged the tomboy not only to value the beautiful and imaginative results of that dedication, but to value the giver even more, a lesson I still need.
Sometimes I think of Mom still at her “sewing machine“, creating dreams and making them real… may we all do the same.
Here’s one from Robert M. that arrived by email May 9th at 2:20 p.m.
This happened last Mother’s Day.
I had gone to my sister Susan’s home, to celebrate the day. I was talking with my other sister, Patsy in the kitchen. While the others’ were in the dining room waiting the arrival of the dessert. My little niece, Dottie was sitting and watching her mother pipe beautiful iced cabbage roses onto the cake she had so skillfully made (she’s a pastry chef). I watch as my niece is intently staring at my sisters hair. My niece suddenly notices that her mother has several strands of white hair laying in contrast to her brunette hair.
She looks at her mother and inquisitively asks, “Why are some of your hairs white, Mommy?” My sister Patsy replied “Well, every time that you do something wrong and it makes me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white.” “So you must always be good.”
My niece thought about this revelation for a while and then asked, “Mommy, how come all of grandma’s hairs are white?”
My sister said, “I made your favorite brownies too, would you like one now?”.
Here’s one that came in by email on May 8th at 10:57 p.m. from Marie W. It’s a different perspective!
My name is Luke – My Mom drove 4 hours to rescue me. Someone dumped me on an oil field in Odessa, Texas to die. My brother who was with me died. Starved to death. I ate bugs and other things that I will not mention to survive. I was skin and bones. I now live where I am very, very loved. I have a safe place to sleep, good food to eat and lots of love. I am a German Shepherd.
My name is Israel – My Mom drove 4 hours with Luke to take me home. Before Mom came to get me, I was left in a backyard for a year – day and night- no matter what the weather might have been – with no attention or love. I was so lonely. Because no one could handle me, it took someone who knew how to train and deal with a very unruly Czech German Shepherd Dog. I now have playmates, lots of toys and lots of love.
My name is Hannah – I was born in a puppy mill. Smelled horrible and had lots of fleas when I was taken home. At my other home, my sister didn’t like me and wanted to kill me so my new Mom came and got me and took me home. I was very skinny and my new Mom spent a lot of time and money finding the right food that made me healthy and not so skinny. I know Mom spends lots of $ on my food because she loves me. I am also a German Shepherd.
My name is Spirit – I was abandoned on a piece of property that had been sold and the new owners had no idea that I was there. Mom came with her friend Skip on the way back from Cowboy Christmas Ball and almost got killed getting me and my horse Mom Bonnie into a horse trailer (we had never been in one before and were not too keen on getting in.) I now have 60 acres to gallop around in – plenty of hay –plenty of water and anything I need. Life is good. I am a very feisty horse.
There are 16 of us. We were starved. We almost died. Mom paid money that she didn’t have to my previous owner to get us away from him. We now live with Spirit and Bonnie and roam the acreage with them. We are miniature donkeys.
My name is Esther. When Mom found me I couldn’t stop bleeding. Mom took me to the doctor and found out that I had an atopic pregnancy. The doctor thought I would die. He did surgery and here I am. I am a sweet kitty.
My name is Curly, My brothers are Moe, Larry and Shep – We were going to be sold for slaughter but Mom found us and made a deal with the people who would have made us stew – and now we live on the acreage safe and sound. We are goats.
My Mom could not have two legged children. She tried and tried. Did everything imaginable to have that happen but it was not to be. Instead, she has taken all of the love that she has and gave it to us. We love her very, very much. We owe our lives to her.
She doesn’t get any credit for being our Mom. Mother’s Day cards from us are hard as we can’t write them or sign them. We love her and she knows that and that has to be good enough.
My Mom is Marie Williams. Happy Mother’s Day Mom!
One of my most memorable Mother’s Day memories is at a Civil War reenactment. My son & I are reenactors. He was a union soldier and I was a camp follower, camp “mom” with a Boy Scout Venture Crew (mostly boys between 14 to 21.) My son and the other guys had always talked about epic “deaths” and funny things that went on in the battlefield but as a spectator I was never close enough to see a lot. At this particular reenactment it was staged at a ranch that was made to look like an old town, so the civilians were able to be up close to the action. Since it was Mothers Day weekend he told me that he had something special planned. On Sunday he made sure that I was in front f the crowd and he knew where I was. When it came time for his line to start taking “hits” he shouted “I love you ,Mom!” And charged the Confederates taking several hits, he died an “Epic Death.” But it got even better than he planned. While the Confederates were securing the town some of the Confederate civilians came out onto the street to raid him. He played dead letting them search his knapsack until one went to grab his side arm. After they left I got to go out and weep over his body. The spectators went wild over the show.
Well I became a mom in the spring of ’09 to a beautiful baby girl and by the next spring when my daughter turned 1yr she called me momma and showed me a butterfly that she found under a cabbage leaf in our garden.