A Tribute to Mother

On Monday, Dec. 2, my brother, Dennis, our sister, Elaine, and I lost our mother, Pauline. She left behind not just us, but many family members who loved her dearly, and many friends.  Before I say what I have to say regarding Mother, I must express our gratitude to the people who have so tenderly befriended and selflessly attended her over the last years of her life.  She spent  her last years at Brookdale Senior Living, where she could not have  been more  lovingly cared for, both by the Brookdale staff and Grace Healthcare; we observed that they performed their work,  not so much as  a task,  but as a calling. 
Now, I take this moment to express my gratitude for our beloved mother and also want to mention some things I learned from her.
Mother did a million things in her day-to-day service for her family. One thing which stands out at this moment is the time when she rescued me as I was delivering my newspapers. As an elementary school child, I had a newspaper route.
I would ride my bike every weekday afternoon and Saturday night after midnight, down into town, get  my  papers,  stuff them  together,  roll  them and ride my route on the dirt streets of Las Cruces,  NM, then peddle back out of the valley to our home.
On one particularly stormy occasion, the wind blew the sand so hard and the rain came down so heavily that I could not move. I stood by the side of the road, holding my bike and saddle bags full of papers, whimpering like a wet dog.  After a time, here she came; she had been driving the streets of my route looking for me, knowing that I’d be in distress. She loaded me into the car and helped me finish my route.
Mother was always there for her children. Always.
One of life’s lessons I acquired from her, and from my dad, was how to make a marriage work. Despite their differences on issues, on how to raise the children, on how to spend their money and many other things, they possessed the maturity to show a cheerful face to us children.
Mother explained to me that from the beginning she thought my father was so very handsome; she took to him the first day she met him, when he came riding up on his horse. The passing of  time and the strains of raising a family wore those youthful affections  off –  actually, did more than wear them off; she told me later in life that there was a three-year period of time when they did not even speak to one another. However, they hid that from us children.
In a letter she wrote to me years later, she said that she and Dad were ready to “Throw in the towel” but did not because of their belief in God, their vows, “’til death do us part,” which they took to heart, their parents’ diligent rearing of the family, the deep faith in Jesus shared by their mothers, and her observation that the couples who stayed together and  raised their families in the church ended up much better in life than those who split apart.
What she and my father lived out in front of us children was selflessness. They held together and just worked it out. They held to principal; generally, when people do that, good things happen.  For times when people don’t or can’t, there is God’s grace.
From the depth of our being, we thank you, Mother. We’re going to miss you.