By Glenn Mollette

Contributing Columnist

Happy Mother’s Day to my dear wife who is a great mom and to every mother everywhere.

My brothers and sisters were all gone from home by the time I was 8 years old. I missed them, but during the summer I had my mother mostly all to myself. My dad worked third shift in the coal mines and slept most of the day. My mother’s main job was keeping me quite so I wouldn’t wake my dad from sleep. Fortunately for him he had built a small place behind our house where he slept during the day. If I didn’t bounce the basketball and played quietly all went well.

I was close to my mother growing up. My sisters always said, “I was mommy’s baby.” I came along 10 years after my other brothers and sisters so probably it was a little easier raising one child than trying to raise my four sisters and brothers all at once.

Life was relatively simple. Some mornings during the summer we had to put bug dust on the bean patch in the garden. Some mornings we hoed corn. We raised hogs and often there were middling’s to make.

We had sulfur drinking water that was unfit for washing clothes. If we had not caught enough rain water, then it meant carrying water from our nearby creek. We had about a hundred yard walk to the creek, so we had to make a lot of trips back and forth to the creek for enough water. God forbid if I got busy chasing a crawl dead and stirred up the creek water. It always took a while for the silt to settle down and the water to clear up. Of course, there was always lots of grass to mow with a push mower.

One of the sweet parts of the day was having lunch with just mom. Usually it was sandwich, a soda pop and a Reese’s Cup, or something similar. Once I talked my mom into letting me have a root beer. She said “you won’t like it and if that’s what you choose you are stuck with it.” I didn’t like it and she stuck to her promise.

I once asked her what she wanted me to be when I became an adult. She thought for a minute and said, “Become a school teacher.” Looking back I know the reason she said that was because in that era school teachers were the only people in our county who had stable jobs and incomes. My dad’s coal mining job was tough, and she wasn’t wishing that on me. In her way, she was saying she wanted the very best for me.

I always felt like mom was on my side although she never tolerated misbehavior. We had a peach tree in our back yard and on more than one occasion she broke off a limb and used what we referred to as a “switch,” on me. I suppose that meant the peach tree limb would assist me in switching my behavior.

However, mom was great. I remember how hard she worked. I know how passionately she loved our family. She took care of my dad and my four siblings. She loved God and prayed and she loved people. I miss my mom. By God’s grace and mercy, I’ll see her again and my dad in heaven.

My children’s mother is also deceased. My sons and I miss her every day, and I know they miss her love and devotion. They have now lived most of their lives without their mother. Mother’s Day is a tough day as they can only remember.

If you have a good mother, take a moment this Mother’s Day and praise her. Good words, hugs, and any deed that might make her life a little easier are well deserved. Do something that pleases mom and for one day forget about yourself.

Maybe your mom and grandma are deceased. On this Mother’s Day maybe there are other special moms that you can graciously wish and express to them in some way, “Happy Mother’s Day.” We can’t go wrong celebrating Mother’s Day.

Dr. Glenn Mollette is president of Newburgh Theological Seminary, Newburgh, Indiana. Contact him at GMollette@aol.com. Learn more at www.glennmollette.com. His Facebook page is at www.facebook.com/glennmollette.