Monday Memory, My Mother

"Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket,
 Save it for a rainy day. 
 Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket. 
Never let it fade away.
  For love may come and tap
 you on the shoulder one starless night
 and just in case you feel you want to hold her.
  You'll have a pocket full of star light."  

This 1957 song written by Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss was made famous by Perry Como.  It was the first single to receive a gold record certification on March 14, 1958.  Little did Vance,  Pockriss, and Como know that Janet Weaver was humming the tune to her 7 kiddos on 2nd east as their bedtime lullaby.

I can still imagine my mom coming to tuck me in and singing me a few lines of "our lullaby"  in my little pink bedroom.  Today, this tune comforts me.

My mom might be called the Amish Woman by some but most importantly by herself.  She is a woman of simplicity and lives by the saying, "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."  Fluff is simply not part of her personal repertoire.
Frugality is the means by which she raised her 7 children. Besides being Amish, she was a magician.  She could feed all of us kids on one can of tuna fish,  and one package of lunch meat.  She made homemade bread before it was cool to make home made bread, and she was going "Green" before the phrase was ever coined.  Practicality with a purpose was her motto.

With missions and college educations looming my mom returned to the classroom to teach when I was in the 4th grade.  This was not a decision easily made by her.  But ultimately, this decision enabled her to spend even more time with us as she taught at the high school from which each of us graduated.

Now as a mother of my own "Fab Five"  I can't imagine how she did it.  I never remember her ever saying she was tired or complaining that she didn't feel well or grumbling because dad didn't do something.  She just did it! 

She work early and went to bed late and always had a listening ear for each of us.   Not only did she mother we 7, but she was a mother to so many.... her students, her children's friends, nieces, nephews, and strangers.  Nurturing came 2nd nature to her.

My mother truly symbolizes a noble mother.  She gave me her love of the theatre, the power of a story, the joy of motherhood, the importance of education, service as a way of life, and showed me that love most certainly is a verb.

I love you my mom... don't worry I am still trying to catch the falling stars!

Happy Mother's Day!