mother's day contest - Five More Minutes With

Memory of Mom: The Cheerleader in My Corner

Written by on May 12, 2012

Ann Morgan James and her mother riding a tandem bike when her mother was in her late 70s.

Ann Morgan James, author of “How to Raise a Millionaire: Six Millionaire Skills You Can Teach Your Kids So They Can Imagine and Live the Life of Their Dreams,” shared this story about good times with her mother.

Thanks, Ann!

First thing I would do is pull out the Scrabble board.

Even if we didn’t finish the game, playing a hand or two would be so very special!

Second, I would hold her every second. . .look in her eyes and see her knowing smile and unconditional love which was always there.

Third, I would tell her all my dreams and goals I am trying to accomplish.

I won’t weigh down the conversation by hashing over stuff that has happened since she was gone.

I would simply spend ever second soaking up all her positive energy and unflagging belief in me, so I could have it when she was gone again.

One of the hardest things about not having my Mom around has been keeping my chin up without my cheerleader in my corner.

Going through a divorce, reinventing myself at age 50, and dealing with life’s blows has been hard at times.

It’s those times–when I need someone to have my back and I don’t–that miss her the most.

It’s those times when I pull on the internal strength she planted in me so I can believe in myself and make my own way.

These are the gifts I am planting in my son.

Comments and Praise

Memory of Mom: Things I Want To Tell My Mother

Written by Marylin Naomi (Shepherd) Warner on May 11, 2012

Marylin Naomi (Shepherd) Warner is a writing coach, editor, and freelance writer who keeps a blog entitled, “Things I Want To Tell My Mother,” in order to help her mother–Mary Elizabeth (Hoover) Shepherd–with her Alzheimer’s Disease.

What an inspiring idea, Marylin! Thanks for your submission to our Memory of Mom (MoM) contest.

My mother is 93, losing her memories in bits and pieces as her dementia advances.

I made her a promise three years ago when my father died, that each month I would drive from Colorado to southeastern Kansas (1,300 miles round trip) and stay a few days with her in her assisted living facility.

During those 32 monthly visits, we have shared driving adventures to her favorite places, and taken friends who’ve been part of her life for years out for meals or coffee.

During the years, though, Mom’s memories became more and more lost in a haze.

I was with her each month, but also losing more of her each month.

So what I did was create a blog, “Things I Want To Tell My Mother,” so I record stories (with pictures) of the big and small events of Mom’s life, the simple and the significant, the poignant and the funny.

This blog will be the “five more minutes” of Mom’s connection with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and they will know the woman she once was.

When a blog post touches them or triggers a memory, they leave a comment with more details, and the ongoing living story takes hold.

Now when I visit each month and read aloud a few entries and show her pictures, Mom will smile and say, “What an amazing lady your friend must be.”

She’s right. My friend–my mother–was and still is an amazing lady.

And even though she will forget, we will remember.

Comments and Praise

Memory of Mom: Your Blue-Striped Apron

Written by Charlene Morella on May 11, 2012

Charlene Morella displays photos of her mother and the blue apron mentioned in her story, below.

This is Charlene Morella’s Mother’s Day Tribute to her Mom, who passed away May 6, 2002, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. Thanks for such a moving entry, Charlene!

Dear Mom,

I hope you know how much I love and miss you everyday.

When I think about you, I picture your beautiful white hair and smiling face.

I can still feel the touch of your soft hands when you touched mine, and how you gently patted my check and still called me “baby,” even as I approached my 60th birthday.

There has not been a moment in my life when I didn’t feel nurtured by your unconditional love and acceptance.

The vision that most often comes to mind is seeing you in our kitchen wearing the blue-striped apron that I gave you many years ago for Mother’s Day.

This room was the hub of your existence.

My most vivid memories are the image of you in your apron, taking a tissue from its pocket to dry my tears, or of you dispensing one of your early-morning hugs as I groggily joined you for breakfast before school, or of us sitting down together at the kitchen table for a mother-daughter talk.

The striped apron now hangs on the back of my laundry-room door.

It’s faded and has obtained a gentle softness from its countless washings.

I don’t have a wardrobe of aprons as you did. I don’t need them. I have your apron.

There are many things in my home that once graced your home. But none evoke such deep emotion in me as that blue-striped fabric hanging in my laundry room.

It is a symbol of all the good parts of my life growing up, and the woman that made it so.

You, my Mother, were my beloved role model and the very first love of my life.

So tonight as I go to prepare dinner, first, I’ll wear my apron in a silent tribute to you.

We will be eternally bound together by its tattered apron strings.

Comments and Praise

Memory of Mom: Trying to Be the Son You Wanted Me to Be

Written by Donald Hoofard, Sr. on May 10, 2012

Donald Hoofard, Sr., is a former Federal Fugitive Recovery Agent (bounty hunter), now turned fiction writer (author of the Dane series) and editor at the Hoofard Agency in Jasper, Texas. He started writing thanks to his mother’s final request.

Donald told me, “My mother, on her death bed, asked me to write my life’s story, saying that I had a life few have ever known and should write about that life. I gave her my word I would do as she had asked, but put it off for almost eight years. Now I am a published author thanks to her last request.”

Congratulations, Donald!

I was not the best of sons.

She may not have been the best of mothers.

But if I had five more minutes with her, I would say this much.

“Mom, I hope that all is well now that you’re in heaven and in no more pain.

“I just wanted you to know that I have taken your last words to me to heart, and written the story of my life as you wanted me to do.

“I may not have been the son you always wanted me to be, but I am trying still. Don’t give up on me yet.

“It is you who has helped me to finally know myself and put my life on paper at last.

“I tell of my life and think of you often through the pages to their very end.

“I love you. I miss you.

“I hope that one day when my time comes, that I again am with you.”

Comments and Praise

Memory of Mom: How Will I Live Without You?

Written by Mary Sullivan on May 6, 2012

Mary Sullivan and her 10-year-old daughter write books together. They have two titles already published–“If I Had a Daddy” and “If We Were Best Friends”—and two more are being written.

Of her mother, Mary said, “I miss her every day and talk to her everyday!”

My mom has passed, but if I had five more minutes with her…after telling her I loved her my whole life, I would ask her how am I going to live without you?

Who will be there for me, like you were?

And I would ask her, if she could please watch over me until we meet again!