Mother's Day (SPT)

I did not have a normal childhood. My mother is crazy. Now, don't get the wrong idea, she is crazy in all the right ways. She is full of life, full of energy (even at 84), full of opinions, actively seeks education. She is a compassionate person giving the last she has to help someone who has less. So, why do I say she is crazy?

When I was in high school, she woke up one morning and decided we needed a day off in the middle of the week. She took my sister and I up in the mountains for the day. We didn't do anything spectacular or amazing, we just drove up into the mountains, had a picnic and took pictures of each other. I love those pictures (mom is the one beating her chest like Tarzan). Then she wrote an excuse for the Principal which my sister and I gleefully took to school the next day. When the Principal read the note, the sparks flew--the Principal just knew my sister and I had written the note and signed our mother's name, surely a mother would not just take her children out of school for no good cause. She had to go to the school and he had to apologize to us.

We have wonderful stories in our family about Mom with a broken leg, Mom with a bowl of moist candy in the living room, Mom leaving the car keys in Dad's pocket and how she got them back when he had flown off on a mission for the Air Force, Mom put in jail in Germany, Mom getting a speeding ticket for going 120 mph and refusing to pay, Mom stealing chickens from the Bishop, Mom with her toe caught in the bathtub faucet (oh wait, that was Lucille Ball).

Whatever, was going on in her life or ours she wanted to participate. I remember hurting her feelings one time because of her innocent exuberance to join in the fun. We were walking home from Church. There were three or four girls and my Mom. We were all talking about bleaching streaks in our hair and doing it for each other. Mom, said "I'll do it for you, Sandi." I said in the typical teenage voice, "Oh, not you." Immediately I could see she was hurt. I don't recall any more of what happened about that incident, but I do remember that my Mom bleached a spider in the front of my hair and I don't recall any of the other girls being allowed to do it.

Once Mom was in a shopping mall and she walked into a piano store. The salesman walked up to her and asked her if she would watch the store while he went to get some lunch. Caught off guard, she said "okay." When she retells the story she recounts how silly she felt standing there and that she can't figure out why she stayed. Luckily no one came in and soon the young man returned with his lunch in hand and she went on her way.

I can see my Mom when I was a little girl and we were traveling all over Europe in a little car with no air conditioning. She always wore a nylon dress (they dry fast when you sweat). She would roll the window down, pull her dress up around her knees, let the breeze from the window billow her dress, fan herself and start to sing. We learned every song she knew.

Mom taught me to love my elders and treat them right. She taught me to be honorable. She taught me to be kind, loving and forgiving. She taught me to love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She taught me to be creative. She gave me exuberance for life.

In fact, if I had to choose one word that described my Mom, I would choose exuberant. I love you Mom.