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Between Friends with BobAnn Breland

Many memories come alive when I am thinking about my mother, which I do almost daily.

At my house, I have a special chair, and I refer to as the “sleeping chair.” It puts me in dreamland in minutes, especially if I am very tired. All I have to do is sit back, recline, put my feet up and just like magic I’m catching some zzzz’s.

This chair reminds me of one that belonged to my mother. When she and Daddy celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, we children gave them matching recliners as a gift. They were great for afternoon naps.

On Sunday afternoons, we waited until after 2 p.m. to visit, because if we went before then, they were napping — something they began to do after they retired.

Sometimes I would look in through the sliding glass doors and see Mom still in her chair, sleeping right on past the appointed 2 p.m. coffee time. Pushing open the door as silently as I could, she would raise her head and say, “Hey! Come on in!”

“Were you sleeping?” I would ask.

“I was just resting my eyes,” she would reply. We often teased her about “resting her eyes” while in that chair.

Daddy didn’t sit in his chair much except to watch the news or the football games on TV on a cold winter day. Besides, when he took a nap, it was in his bed. No reclining and “resting eyes” for him. When he took a nap, he took a real nap.

After “resting her eyes”, Mother always went into the kitchen and made coffee. We loved sitting around her table, drinking coffee (or milk) and sharing things with her. It was our time to gather together, particularly on Sunday.

On most days after her rest was over, she usually found something to keep her busy…baking a cake or working outside with her flowers.

Both parents are precious to us, but there is nobody quite like one’s mother. She is the one who loves you unconditionally and forever, no matter how much you either please or disappoint her. In your lifetime nobody but God will ever love you more than your mother. When you have lost her, there is a void that is never quite filled again.

Mother’s Day carries bittersweet thoughts. We treasure all the precious times together with our mom, but on Mother’s Day weekend in 1999, our Daddy died.  So we have double memories for this special time. Mother followed him in October the same year. We had them much longer than many people have their parents. They had been married 65 years.

Today they are both on my mind as I walk back through sweet memories of a wonderful, peaceful childhood spent with parents who helped me to grow to a healthy adulthood not only physically, but also emotionally and spiritually. They were our wise advisors through many hard times and cheered the loudest during the good times.

If you still have your mother, let her know how much you love her every day, not just at special times. It pleases her more than you know.

Having shared all this, I shall now go and sit in my own “sleeping” chair and “rest my eyes”.

Happy Mother’s Day!