A few thoughts on Mother’s Day…

Every child has one but what do they really do? They are like a river because they just keep going and going and never stop.

Mothers are there every morning to see us off and glad to see us in the afternoon. She always cooked us good things to eat because no one else knew how. She was the one that never sat down at the table to eat because she was busy waiting on us.

When she burned herself in the kitchen, no one kissed it or got too excited. It was understood that when we got sick, mother would wait on us hand and foot, and she went out and got the medicine we needed to make us better.

She was the working mom, always very busy, she cooked, washed the dishes, cleaned the house and made everything special when we had our friends over. She ran outside and picked us up when we fell and started to cry. She signed my report cards and at night would tuck me in bed and give me a big kiss goodnight. I wondered if all mothers did this our just mine.

Once we tried cooking, Mother sat and watched and then ate a half-cooked egg and burned toast and said it was the best she had ever eaten. We were going to clean the house and spilled cleaning liquid on top of the TV, and she threatened to beat us to death. At first, I thought she meant it but decided she was bluffing, and we continued to clean anyway. Whenever we played house it was the mother doll that did all the cooking, house cleaning and doctoring.

One morning when we woke up there were strange people in the house, and they took mother off in an ambulance to the hospital. Mother would die there. The next day we had lots of people over, and everyone talked about our mother and what a good person she was. We went into our rooms and cried and cried and kept asking why mother was taken away.

You see, we took mother for granted and never took the time to tell her “thank you” for those little things. Now it’s too late and she will never hear it. Don’t let it be too late on this Mother’s Day… Don’t take your mother for granted.

Wayne Norwood is a lieutenant with the St. John Parish Sheriff’s Department and owner and operator of the Louisiana Treasures Museum located at 10290 Highway 22, West Pontchatoula.