A Fresh Start
I realized this last year that I have now lived here longer than my Mom did. That just didn’t seem right to me. If anyone deserved a long life it was my Mom. She was so full of kindness, laughter, love, and good cheer and she shared her gentle spirit with everyone. During the last four years of her life she battled cancer. But she used even this to grow closer to us all. I remember calling her on the phone everyday to tell her I loved her, something I sadly didn’t do that much as a child. Still after a long, courageous fight she died on a cold, dark day. She was only 55.
After her funeral my own health broke. I developed double pneumonia and even after my body started to heal my spirit still grieved. I didn’t want to go on without her. I wanted my own young children to know her love. One day as I sat in quiet pain on my couch my little girl climbed on my lap to cheer me up. Her brother soon joined her and I held them both close. At that moment I could feel my Mom’s loving presence in the room and I knew that I had to go on. I vowed that my children would know of her love and beautiful soul through the stories I shared with them and I knew that her gentle spirit would live on in my heart. I could hear her sweet laughter in my mind and I knew that it was time to rise up and begin to live again.
The wonderful author Leo Buscaglia once wrote: “Each day is a fresh beginning, a little life unto itself.” Mom would have loved that quote because that is exactly how she lived her life. She never wasted a moment. Each day she shared her laughter, her smile, her love, her kindness and her cheerful spirit. Each day she made the world a better place for me, her family, and everyone she met.
I will do my best Mom to follow your example: to love God, myself, and everyone else, to make each day a fresh, joyful beginning, and to keep you in my heart until I hug you in Heaven.
