I’m sorry to all the moms out there reading this, but my mom is the best.
It’s true, and I can prove it.
For starters, the woman worked night shifts as a nurse and home-schooled three children.
She made her own wedding dress and wedding cake.
She had three children in figure skating, soccer, baseball, swimming, Sunday school and some form of Sparkies/Cubs/Beavers. She put in the volunteer hours at a smokey bingo hall as required by our skating clubs. She sewed my skating dresses and my brother’s skating shirts. At Christmas there was always something amazing and handmade under the tree in addition to all the other things. In fact, it was likely wrapped in a little Christmas bag she sewed. We still fill stockings made by mom.
Pinterest asks my mom for ideas.
She’s also a huge nerd. One day for our science class she brought home a cow’s eyeball from the butchers and dissected it on our kitchen table. We learned the scientific term for everything and it’s her fault I call a heart attack a myocardial infarction. She's the reason at the age of 12 I knew a defibrillator isn’t used for a patient who has flat lined. (Medical dramas are lying to us all.)
I could do CPR on an adult or a child before my 10th birthday because my mom is also a CPR instructor. My three-year-old niece knows how to make the veins in her hand "pop out" thanks to her Grandma.
I also know how to put a turn on a curling stone, throw takeout weight and hurry hard with a curling broom. Because mom was a champion junior curler, a coach in her adult years and a curler again as an empty nester.
When I got married, mom made my cake. She bought me a dress and made a veil from her old dress. She also made hundreds of paper flowers to make her daughter’s crazy vision come true.
Together mom and I make strawberry jam from scratch, hundreds of cakes and cupcakes for countless church or other community functions and we bake enough Christmas goodies to feed an army.
When I was a kid, I used to help mom make Christmas squares and cookies and we would put them on plates and take them by wagon to our neighbours for Christmas.
Mom taught me to be independent, but not to use that independence to withdraw from people.
Mom taught me there was always something I could do for someone else. As busy as life got, she made sure there was time for others, because what’s life without others?
Mom taught me how to learn and adapt. Throughout my life, my mom was always taking a course. I remember a creative writing course for which she wrote a hilarious essay about our family’s battle with fleas one season. She’s taken many nursing courses and has earned a position as an operating room supervisor as a result. Now she’s taking counselling courses to help her be a better pastor with my dad.
She and my dad gave me an incredible example of a strong marriage and solid partnership. They taught me the value of trusting someone and the importance of being trustworthy for someone.
My mom and dad challenged me when I needed to grow and protected me when I wasn’t ready. They both taught me leadership and submission because one cannot exist without the other.
Finally, and above all mom showed me love.
See, I told you she was the best.
I love you, mom. Happy Mother’s Day.
