On behalf of the 63d RD,
Mothers
I was clicking through my calendar on my phone checking my appointments and 9 May popped up as “Mother’s Day”. I paused there and got lost in my brain for a few minutes while waiting in the dental office, and only came back into the room when I heard my name called to go in for my dental cleaning. My childhood was pretty solitary in that my brother’s and one sister were 4-7 years older than I was at the time so that when I reached the age of three they were all in school, and I was at home with my mother.
My most memorable memory of my mother is when she saved me during a car accident when a semi-truck stuck our old car. Seatbelts had not been invented, and when my mother saw the truck coming our way she reached over and held me to the seat and kept me from harm as our car spun around and then came to a stop, and only let go when she passed out.
My mother used to take me to the laundry downtown. She would load all of the clothes into four or five loads while I sat reading a book or I’d watch the small black and white television (TV) set. I would watch “Captain Kangaroo”. Because the TV was black and white the main character, Captain Kangaroo had white hair. When I saw the show later in life in color he had aged, but still had white hair and looked the same to me.
On pay day, my mother would take me to eat french-fries and to drink orange pop at the diner where my mother’s aunt worked. It was a ritual that I looked forward to and to this day I still love to eat that combination. When we would go to the market for food she would allow me to buy a 25 cent children’s book. She would read them to me until I memorized them, and then when she would try to shorten the story I would catch the mistake and correct the story for her. This is how I learned to read before formally attending school.
When I was little my mother was the center of my world. She would dress me up with clothes from JC Penny’s, took me to get my hair repaired at the beauty shop after my older brother decided to cut my hair with a pair of paper scissors. I experienced my first ride on an escalator at the Sear’s store of which I viewed as an amusement park ride every time we went there. I was with my mother when I rode on an elevator at the court house for the first time in my life of which I did not like due to feeling motion sickness. And when I grew older and ran long distance or track and field in junior high and high school my mother was there cheering me on and never missed a race, and she would be the one I would see as I crossed the finish line.
My mother is no longer with me in this world, but I still have my memories. They still make me pause in dental offices, or when I see a children’s book that I occasionally still buy and read, even in my fifties. She wasn’t a perfect mother looking back, but as a child I didn’t judge or need a perfect mother. I just needed a mother to tuck me in at night with my stuffed toys, dolls and my cat, read me a story, and be there when I woke up in the morning to start my day with her by my side. I needed her there in my life as I traversed this world full of tall people until I grew up and could walk the world on my own. And, that is what she did, not without fault, mistakes, or arguments between us, but as best as she could with what she had to give me. And, looking back, that was enough.
For all of you on Mother’s Day, as a child looking back or as a mother with a child, remember that parenting is a skill that both are learning while one is a child, and while one is a mother. Make it count for the both of you so that when you both look back, you look back not on perfection, but on how love is given and received by the little things in life that we remember even when our mothers are no longer with us.
CH (MAJ) Dawn Siebold
Here is the direct email and phone number for anyone requesting support from the 63d RD Chaplain office,
usarmy.usarc.63-rsc.list.chaplain-all-users@mail.mil
650-526-9668