Mom, Mom. Mommy, Mama, Mommer, Mom

On Mother's Day at Bethlehem Congregational Methodist Church there were only mother's there. One thing that I gave great thought to was, if as a mother your mother was still living it was custom to wear a red corsage'. If your mother was dead you were to wear a white corsage'. The mother's at our little Methodist church were, my grandmother, my mama, Aunt Mae, Zokie, and Sis Garner. Cofie had never had children or been married. Opel the piano player was married, but no children. The flowers that the women wore were roses picked from the yard and pinned on, nothing that a florist had made. Anything that was a big deal to Grandmother was a big deal to me. This flower pinned on thing was no different. I made sure that Mama's was the right color and it was pinned in the perfect spot. This was still a special Sunday even though it was not first Sunday, the day the preacher came. Tinsley was his name; my brother reminded me of his name just recently. He was a skinny real old man, with a hat, and glasses. He had to be at least 90 years old. That was at least what I thought when I was not yet 10. He wore a hat like Clark Kent wore on Superman. His wife drove him from Phil Campbell once a month to preach for us. We took up an offering to pay him, most of the time the amount we collected was twelve dollars. We took up money for Sunday School on the other Sunday's, but this was just change. That change that was collected was used to buy those wonderful Sunday School lesson books. They had the best of the best Bible Stories in the language any child could learn and never forget. Moses as baby floating in a basket. Jesus as a child; Noah's Ark. The tower of Babel. All of the best. They were printed in color with questions at the end of each lesson. I always new the answers. I was the only one in class most of the time. Ofie was the teacher and I was the student.  I was the one that passed the basket unless one of the boys had decided to come to church. Usually when one decided it meant that the cousins were at our house and they all three came; my brother and two boy cousins. The issue of if a husband should buy his wife a Mother's Day gift was surely not an issue then, nope. Mother's Day was not the big event it is today. The gift of gifts was getting a store bought corsage' to wear, instead of one picked from the yard. That was one lucky mom. One thing I know is store bought corsage' or not, I am a very lucky mom. I am a blessed mom, blessed by love from three wonderful girls. They are all grown up and soon to be mom's themselves. With every generation seems our family of mom's have gotten better. I have gathered that hug's and I love you's are more precious than gold. I see them becoming the adult that I was to a certain extent. They are busy. They have friends, jobs, homes, and men that take up much of their time. My wish is that when they are mother's they keep in mind that one day the best time of their life will end. The babies will be grown, with friends, jobs, homes and men to take time away from Mommy. No matter how tired I was when they were little it was still the best, I can rest now. Not so much to do, but I really don't know what to do. It is amazing how a mother eats, breaths and lives babies; then you wonder where the time went. You turn around, life has changed, they are grown.