ALT-2 Celebration of Mothers Day
I would like to describe my feelings and maybe enlighten someone who has neglected their Mother or disrespected her in some way. It has been twenty-seven years since my Mother closed her eyes, I was in my late twenties, she was living with me at the time because my sisters and one of my brothers were having a hard time dealing with the fact that she was dying.
Me personally, I was having that same problem. When I look back, we never got together and talked about what was best for her, we never even asked her about what was going on with her,we were all dumb and weak and lost, the blind leading the blind. I watched a robust woman turn into a bag of bones as cervical cancer ate away the womb that nourished five children. I will not go into all of the sad details surrounding my Mother's death but I will tell you what I learned. Being the youngest and being very close to her I was bewildered and ill equipped but I hung in there, by the time my Mother had come to live with me she was in the final stages of her illness, everyday that I got ready for work I would set up the ironing board to iron my clothes, just so she and I could talk, we talked about a lot of things. She gave me some good advice during that time, then there were the times when she was in another place, those were the times when I would just listen to her conversations with other people that only she could see. As she progressed it became harder for me to deal and my siblings were of no help to me, it was during a very stressful night that I hollered at my Mother, I could not believe that I had done such a horrible thing! I went to the telephone and I called my aunt, my Mother's baby sister and I told her, "I hollered at my Mother," she is so sick and I hollered at her.
My aunt talked to me until I calmed down and told me to hold on she would be there to help me. She came and so did all the other elders, they loved my mom. My aunt would lay in the bed with her and talk to her, it was all so beautiful. There people all over the house and cooking and laughing and prayers. When I asked for help and it came, it gave me a chance to really step back and see what family love really meant. My sisters and brothers and myself didn't realize that help was there all the time. May of 1979 it rained everyday until June 7, 1979 the day that my Mother closed her eyes, the sun came out and the birds were singing, the night before in torrid rain I had to rush my Mother to the hospital. When I went home I laid on my couch and I cried, I knew that my Mother would not be coming back home to me, I fell asleep and I dreamed about my beautiful black Mother, I heard her voice talking to me she said 2 words, "my baby." I heard someone banging on my door and my phone was ringing at the same time, I answered the phone and a nurse just said Louise come to the hospital and I said okay. I went to the door and there was a police officer who told me that I needed to go to the hospital, the reason that I was receiving this attention is because I worked at that hospital. I called my sisters and they came and we went to see our Mother, the nurses had cleaned her up and she looked beautiful, she had a natural smile on her face and I knew then that all those folks that had been coming to see her, the ones that only she could see had come and lead her away and she was glad to see them.
I miss my mom everyday since the day she closed her eyes. My Mother was a good a kind, strong, loving Mother. She taught my brothers and sisters and myself to be that way also. Mother's Day is a very hard day for me and I guess it will always be even after 27 years, I found out that, "true love never dies." Celebrate with your Mother tell her you love, it's not about what you can give her materialistically but what you can give her in love and devotion. I was blessed to know and love my Mother.
