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Mothers' Day Musings I (of II)

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Contributed by: Mame Shroyer on 5/6/2008

Mothers' Day 2001

As she entered the sanctuary, a smiling woman handed her a pink carnation and greeted her with, "Happy Mothers' Day!"

"Oh... I'm not a mother," she replied apologetically.

"That's okay! We're giving these to all of the women," the kind greeter said with a pat on the shoulder.

To her surprise, tears filled her eyes and would not stop flowing down her face throughout the service. She had never been one of those women who feel their lives would be incomplete without children, and as she began to age without having found a life companion, she started telling herself that she was too old to start babies anyhow. She had no desire to raise a child alone. She didn't want to be 60 with a 20-year-old child.

So where were these tears coming from? Was she lying to herself? Or was she just getting in touch with some hidden sadness about her lack of family connections in general, of being alone in a new place without the ease of meeting people through children and husband and family. Or maybe she was feeling a bit of pain at being forever excluded from the sisterhood of moms, of being from another planet, a person who evoked awkward silence from many women...after all, what else can you talk about other than husbands and children? And she was sure at least a part of it was the feeling that she didn't have the satisfaction of helping to shape tender lives. Her impact on this planet was minimal at best. She needed to think about this some more.
*************************************************************************************

Enviable Epitaph

All of the other women's tombstones in the pioneer graveyard said "Dear Wife" or "Beloved Mother", grouped with and remembered in the end for the families they had blessed. But the elegant tombstone of this sixty-year-old woman stood alone, with an inscription that read:

"This was a life of
Beauty,
Truth,
and Love."

And I felt goosebumps,
that a century after her death, her life was impacting mine!
****************************************************************************************
Blast from the Past

Her 7 years in Youth Ministry seemed so far away,
a separate lifetime from her current uninspired existence in technologyville.
She sometimes longed to be making a real difference.

Sorting through a barrage of e-mail after being off for 5 days, she received a wonderful surprise!

"Remember me?" the note began, "You were my 8th grade Sunday school teacher when you were in seminary."

(A troubled young face appeared in her mind's eye.)

"I think of you often. Thank you for taking the time to listen to me and be there for me through a very difficult time in my life. I graduated from seminary myself, and for 5 years now, have been Minister of Children and Preschool at a church in Georgia."

Who says you have to have children and grandchildren to carry on your legacy?

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Mame Shroyer

Colorado Springs , CO

Mame Shroyer has posted 48 stories and 39 comments since joining on 11/15/2006. Mame Shroyer 's average story rating is 4.8.

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