For Mom, with Love

November 16th, 2010

Me and my mom.

    I’m sad to say the world today lost one of its kindest, most loving and most generous souls — my mom, Leona, who everyone knew better as “Matty.”

   Mom was 85 and had been going downhill with dementia for years.

   What a sweetheart she was to everyone. You know how some people are supposedly so generous that they’d give you their last dollar?

   My mom not only would, but did. I saw her do it.

   When she was in an assisted-living facility in Lancaster, my daughter, Erin, one day went along to visit. Mom never had much money in her wallet and had even less as she got out less and less often.

   When Erin went to leave, Mom — as she always did — tried to give away something. Reaching into her wallet, she pulled out the only $1 she had. She insisted that Erin take it and “do something nice for yourself” with it.

   A dollar doesn’t go very far these days, but that one reached the whole way to Heaven. I’ve kept it ever since as a reminder of love unlimited.

   Mom also loved to garden. She and my dad were constantly out working in the yard. Dead patches in the lawn never had a chance. Rabbits ate their flowers every year, but they kept planting anyway. Their best success was the meaty, red tomatoes that came every August.

Mom edging.

   Oh, how Mom enjoyed fresh tomatoes. One of the last big smiles I saw on her face was biting into my last ripe tomato of the season that I had taken her at the nursing home.

   My dad mainly did vegetables, roses and the lawn. Mom was his tireless helper. She’d dig and trim and plant and rake till dark, but her absolute favorite job was weeding.

   When she came to live with Sue and me as her dementia worsened, nothing contented her more than heading out to the back yard with a long-handled weeding tool in one hand and an empty 5-gallon bucket in the other.

   If there are weeds in Heaven, I’ll bet there are already fewer of them now.

   Rest and enjoy your new Home, Mom. Thanks for your lessons and your love, and may God bless you with fresh Beefsteaks in every season.