Moms Matter

“There is no role in life that is more essential than that of 
motherhood.”
— Elder M. Russell Ballar
 
This Sunday is Mother’s Day, so be sure to honor and celebrate the special women in your lives. Being a mom is the most important job there is, and to shape a child into a kind, respectful, loving and responsible person is a job that takes love and patience.
On Mother’s Day, I like to think about all the women role models that have shaped my life. This tribute is in honor of my Grandma Minnie. 
I wanted to share a few memories from the “I Remember Mama” section of our family book. My aunts recorded memories of their mom (Minnie) and her strength in raising five children when their dad left in 1936. 
The winter of 1936 was the worst they could remember, being snowed in for months, and almost out of food. They recalled eating a lot of pancakes, and finding one potato in the cupboard that they creamed so they could all have a taste. When they ran out of coal, their mother chopped wood off the barn to burn for heat. Two uncles finally reached them by sleigh with food and coal. 
Aunt Alyce’s last sentence in tribute to her mom reads, “We were poor, but we were really rich because we always had her love.”
Five years later when Grandma Minnie’s youngest sister, Elna, died of cancer at the age of 46, leaving three children aged 14, 11 and 5, Minnie became a second mom to Elna’s children and moved, along with her own children, into Elna’s home to love and help care for them.
“Aunt Minnie became our second mother with abundant love to give and her own children shared her with us so generously,” wrote Elna’s daughter, Louise.
Be sure to celebrate your mother, and all the amazing women out there that give to others so selflessly. There are many women in our community, like my grandmother, who are selflessly caring for children who need them. Your love and caring will be remembered.
We are rich when we have a mother’s love, always.