There is no special occasion today. It’s not my mother’s birthday nor is it a
Mother’s Day. Recently, I had a quick
conversation with a colleague who is a first time mommy and that inspired me to
write something for all the best mothers out there. You may read a lot of things about my mother
in this post. I am just a proud daughter
that will boast and shout out to the world that
my mom is a classic example of a loving mother and a supported wife.
We are four siblings in the family: 2 boys and 2 girls. I am a middle child who has two older
brothers and a younger sister. When we
were still babies, I can’t imagine how my parents managed to take care of
us. They said we had two housemaids
before but I could only remember having one, maybe because I was very young
then. In our growing years, the
housemaids left us eventually. It now
became my parents’ call. My parents are
both working individuals. My mother is a
public grade school teacher. She works
from 7AM to 5PM every day, Monday to Friday.
If she does over time, she’d go home at 6PM. If she attends the Wednesday Novena or First
Friday mass at 6PM, she’ll reach home by almost 8PM. When we were kids, my mom wakes up at 5AM
every day to prepare everything for us, from cooking to waking us up to bathing
to clothing to bringing us to school.
Please take note, that happens EVERY DAY. You may think she has the
usual Saturday and Sunday offs but no – these were allotted for weekly
household chores, God and family time.
She’d do the laundry, clean the house, and cook for the whole
family. These are routinely done until
we went to college. And oopss.. by the
way, she is also actively serving in our parish. I don’t know how she does all that. I think those were entailed on a mother’s
love.
Her image of a mother doesn’t stop there. During our college days, whenever we are on
school break or at home in Bataan, she still sees to it that everything is in
order from A to Z. She always tells us to bring home our laundry so she can do it
for us. In that way, she could lessen our
burden of living away from home. Soon as we leave for Manila again, she makes
sure that we brought with us her personally prepared yummy meals. Again, this is something special that she
always do for us. If you live or had
lived in Manila, you’ll know what I mean here.
Manila is the Philippines’ capital, a big city that all kinds of food to
eat are readily available round the clock. Her efforts
of cooking instead of simply taking some rest were just extraordinary for a
very busy mother like her. For us her children, she deserves more than being an
“Ulirang Ina” awardee.
So there, enough of the kids. My mom as a wife. She is a real epitome of a lifetime-partner. She obeys, trusts, and loves
unconditionally. She had always been
there for my father all the way. I can’t
recall a day or even a second that she’d been busy and wasn’t available when Papa
needs her to be beside him. She has
given Papa the fullest of her service alongside God. We grew up seeing them loving each other more
through the worst and best times of their lives and us as a family. They’ve brought out the best in them
individually and supported each other’s dreams. Being a normal couple, they also
had their petty quarrels at times but those only added spices to their married
life. Mama always lifts up Papa and
appreciates him as he is. Just so when she’s really proud of her husband, she’ll
brag about how Papa worked harder for us and his family to get the life we have
now. During Papa’s last days, she had
shared the pain and prayed with him, and served him wholeheartedly without
expectations.
Mama, now in her happy old age, is still happily teaching
kids and taking care of her children. She
still do what she was doing before. Aside
from the fact that she aged, it seems nothing in her persona really changed at
all. She still has that simplicity, contentment,
humility, and happiness in her heart long before, but went even greater now. I thank God for the gift of her life, for
giving our family a mother who reflects that of our dear Mama Mary, for
allowing us to feel a real mother’s love in her. She is the best mother that every child would
wish to have.
Lord, thank you for Mama’s existence to the world. Thank you
for letting Mama enjoy the gift of motherhood. Thank you for raising and
molding Mama the way she is now. Thank you, God for making me one of her
children. Thank you for being patient to
her whenever she makes mistakes. I pray that
You always keep her safe, be her shield when storm comes, be her comfort during
her sadness and longing, and be her confidence in times of failures and unbearable
fall outs. Please give her good health always and longer life. And when all things
went out of control, may she fall in a complete surrender to You, oh Lord, our
God of all mercy and possibilities, Amen.
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