Mothers Day – Celebrating and Remembering

With gratitude, joy, and tears we celebrated this weekend all the women who have touched our lives.  Mother’s day is a special day for everyone, we all have mothers and mother figures that have impacted our lives, current and past and we celebrate them!

Becoming a mother has completely changed my view of Mother’s Day. I felt like I joined a massive club of women, not thinking I was ready for the club and not up for the tasks of mother hood and the strength it takes to me a mother.  I do get very sentimental around Mother’s day each year, for a few reasons, but am still so very grateful for the strength our mothers, grandmothers, aunts… show us. I am so proud to be apart of this club!

20 years ago on Mother’s Day our family gathered to bury my dad’s ashes on the one year anniversary of his death, May 9^th.   I still cannot comprehend the strength of my mom and my grandmother doing this on Mother’s Day.  But the significance of Mother’s day has been changed for me since, not in a morbid way, but a remembrance of life and death.  Each year my dad’s death anniversary doesn’t fall on Mothers day, but always near. It is a constant reminder of the beauty of the life and that we must choose to enjoy what we have, as life is short.

4 years ago on May 8^th, I was sitting in my grandmother’s hospice room with my uncle, (my dad’s mom and brother).  It was one of the hardest things I have done.  My uncle and I talked like my grandmother was in the room, we talked about memories and realized what the date was, it was May 8^th, one day before the anniversary of my dad’s death.  The timing was so odd, we had no idea when she would pass, but a day away from the anniversary of my dad’s and her son was ironic.  I am a faithful believer in things happen when they are suppose to happen, in God’s timing, not our timing. 

Still one of the hardest things I have done, but so amazing, and I am so grateful to have been then when she left us on May 8th.  To be someone when they are born, is such a gift and when they leave this world is also a gift.  My grandmother was a faithful woman and I know she is with our Lord, which brings me peace, but being with her while she took her last breath on earth, was a moment I do cherish.  I still don’t feel prepared to be a mother, but finding the courage and strength to be there in the room with my grandmother as she was leaving us, I know I have the strength, I have seen it in all the women around me. Yes, May is full of sad memories for my family, but I am so GRATEFUL for the memories we do have with each other. Wonderful memories to hold on to, laugh through the tears memories.

Women rise to the occasion when they need to, God has given women a strength that we don’t always know we have, but when challenges arise we summon the strength, we support each other and we join together. This weekend we celebrate the many amazing women in our lives, the mothers, grandmothers, aunts, cousins, friends and everyone in between! We celebrate their strength, their love and their support for us the next generation of strong mothers.