My Favorite Memory Of My Mother
is the day she became a grandmother. She flew out a couple days before Elijah was born. She was hoping to be right on time for his delivery but my little boy was a little late. She came with me to the hospital as they induced me. I remember her giving me ice chips and encouraging me as the contractions came every minute in a half. I watched as she wrenched her hands when the nurses came in to tell me it had been too long and my little guy needed some help so they had to take him out. As I lay on the operating table, I was excited to meet my son but I knew my mom was left alone in the maternity room, pacing the floor and praying. Worrying and praying were two things she did the most even though the Bible says pray and not worry. When they wheeled me back into the maternity room with little Elijah in my arms, I could hear her excitement as she talked to my dad on the phone about how I was back and how precious and beautiful the little big-cheeked baby was. After E was all cleaned up, fed, swaddled and bundled, Mom was ready to hold her first grandbaby. My husband took the photo of her holding him. I watched her as he took the photo of her holding E. She had the biggest smile I had ever seen in a long time. I watched as she sang to him and walked with him. I imagined that that must have been how she was with me when I was a baby. She was one happy grandma! It was a different kind of joyful I had inside. I was nervous as a new mom, but I was happy because she had a new little baby from the fruit of her loins. I then understood the pain and heartbreak she must have felt when they had miscarriages before and after me. I could not imagine what they had gone through or felt at those times, but I knew that Elijah was an answered prayer that they were overjoyed to now have. There are tons of mom memories that I have shared with her from making fried apple pies to shopping for Easter dresses the Saturday before Easter. But the memory of her becoming a grandmother is special because I had seen her in a different light. She had saved all my baby blankets and given them to me at my baby shower. She even saved the baby diaper pins she had used for me. Even though I knew I probably wouldn’t be using cloth diapers, I understood the gesture. I knew she had been waiting for this time: Grandmotherhood.
Every time I look at this picture of her holding E, I smile and slightly tear up.
What a strong woman it must have took to be pregnant and then come home without a baby twice; to never talk about it with anyone; to long for a child, then have one only to watch her grow up and 1,500 miles away; to wait 25 years for a grandson; to live so far away and long to be near your grandchildren. I applaud you mother! You are strong! You are courageous! You are loved! Happy Mother’s Day!
