Today I’ll be celebrating Mother’s Day with Emily and James as they honour their wonderful mother, my wife, Pauline. Her skills as a mother amaze me and our kids are a real testimony to her abilities as a mum. Pauline demonstrates that she is an amazing woman in so many ways but as a mum she simply radiates love for her children.
I’ll also be wishing my mother-in-law a happy Mother’s Day when we drop in on her this afternoon. She’s obviously a good mum. I only have to look at Pauline to know that.
But I’ll also be pausing to remember my own mum who passed away over 23 years ago when I was in my early twenties. I’ll be feeling some sadness that she’s not here with us but when I remember what a wonderful person she was it’ll help to put a smile back on my face. (That’s me with my parents in the photo. You can click on the picture for a closer look.)
So many times I experience things that I wish I could share with mum. There are moments in life that I just know mum would have enjoyed. There are things I see that I’d just love to show mum because I know she would have appreciated them.
I know that parents can’t stick around forever but there are so many moments that I wish I could have shared with her.
Mum never saw me realise my dream of becoming a radio announcer. She wasn’t around for any of the 5 times I cycled across Australia or my trips to India with Bike for Bibles. There are so many significant moments in my life that mum missed …. and I really missed her being there.
One of the hardest thing for me is knowing that mum passed away several years before I met Pauline so they never got to meet. I know that they would have got on so well. I would have loved to have seen mum’s smiling face as Pauline walked down the aisle on that hot day in December 1992.
Probably the toughest is that I never got to introduce Emily and James to Grandma Olsen.
Life has its ups and downs but I just wish that I could let mum know that life for her youngest child is good. Very good.
Mother’s Day is often a day of mixed emotion for so many reasons. If you’re a mother I truly hope that you have a wonderful Mother’s Day. I know that for many there are sad thoughts and regrets but let me say thank you for doing one of the toughest jobs in the world the best way you know how. Your amazing contribution to our world has not gone unnoticed.
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