This is not just another day.
This is Mother’s Day, and a day for appreciating the mother in your life, and for some of us, remembering our mothers who have passed on through heaven’s gates.
“The young mother set her foot on the path of life,” late novelist Irene Temple Bailey wrote in her 1933 A Little Parable for Mothers, in what some of us believe is the most poignant tribute to mothers. “Is the way long?” she asked. And her guide said, ‘Yes, and the way is hard. But the end will be better than the beginning.’ But the young mother was happy, and she would not believe that anything could be better than these years. So she played with her children, and gathered flowers for them along the way; and the sun shone on them, and life was good, and the young mother cried, ‘Nothing will ever be lovelier than this.’”
Mothers always are there.
They are there with the antiseptic for our scraped knees. They are there with the thermometer when fevers come. They are there to tie the ribbons in a daughter’s pigtails and there to tie the bow tie for morning Sunday school. They let us lick the sweet batter before the cake goes into the oven. They are the “Tooth Fairy” with the silver dollar appearing under our pillow. They worry when we’re past curfew to be home. They are there with the listening ear when the boyfriend or girlfriend breaks our heart or the marriage falls apart.
They are God’s blessing and gift to us.
They are mothers.
They always are there, because they want the best for us.
Along a Mother’s Way
“Then night came, and a storm, and the path was dark, and the children shook with fear and cold, and the mother drew them close and covered them with her mantle,” Temple Bailey wrote in her parable. “And the children said, ‘Mother, we are not afraid, for you are near, and no harm can come,’ and the mother said, ‘This is better than the brightest of day, for I have taught my children courage.’”
Mothers are life teachers from the day we are born, and we never are alone no matter the trials and tribulations that may come.
“And the morning came and there was a hill ahead, and the children climbed and grew weary, and the mother was weary, but at all times she said to the children, ‘A little patience, and we are there,’” Temple Bailey wrote. “So the children climbed, and when they had reached the top, they said, ‘We could not have done it without you, Mother.’ And the mother, when she lay down that night, looked up at the stars and said, “This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned fortitude in the face of hardness. Yesterday I gave them courage. Today I have given them strength.’”
No mountain is too high, mothers teach us. No valley too deep. And they are there with us along life’s way.
“And the next day came strange clouds which darkened the earth—clouds of war and hate and evil, and the children groped and stumbled,” Temple Bailey wrote. “And the mother said, ‘Look up. Lift your eyes to the light.’ And the children looked and saw above the clouds an Everlasting Glory, and it guided them beyond the darkness. And that night the mother said, ‘This is the best day, for I have shown my children God.’”
A Journey Fulfilled
I cannot help but give thought to women like Sybil West and Judy Dawkins, the late Dorothy Ray, the late Doris Tyson Beaman, the late Rebecca Henley, the late Mary Stewart Gillis, and so many more to include the love of Rev. Keith Smith for his mother.
“And the days went on, and weeks and the months and the years, and the mother grew old, and she was tired and weary,” Temple Bailey wrote of a mother’s journey with her children. “But her children were tall and strong, and walked with courage. And when the way was hard they helped their mother, and when the way was rough, they lifted her and carried her; and at last they came to a hill, and beyond the hill they could see a shining road and golden gates flung open wide.”
God was waiting.
A mother was frail and fragile, but it was the children now grown and strong and sturdy that marked the hallmark of a mother’s days.
“And the mother said, ‘I have reached the end of my journey,’” Temple Bailey wrote. “‘And now I know that the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them.’ And the children said, ‘You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates.’”
‘Every Day Is Mother’s Day’
This is not just another day.
This is a day for celebrating the mothers who always are there for us and guiding us along our paths of life. They are always just a telephone call or a hug away, because they have loved and nurtured us for all of our days.
I’m reminded of Joe Gillis’ words many years ago, when he spoke of Mary Stewart Gillis, the matriarch of the Gillis family along Gillis Hill Road in west Fayetteville.
“Every day is Mother’s Day out here,” he said.
Epilogue
And so it has been here along Arlington Avenue, where I still see my Mama sitting at this cherry-wood secretary desk and teaching that words are to be written from the heart. I look into the church photograph on a nearby table of a mother with the pretty blue eyes and the lilt in her laugh, and always know that for whatever good has come my way in life, Mama’s fingerprints are the essence of who a son would become.
Above her photograph is Temple Bailey’s A Little Parable for Mothers, and Temple Bailey’s subtle words of assurance.
“And they stood and watched her as she went on alone and the gates closed after her,” Temple Bailey wrote. “And they said, ‘We cannot see her, but she is with us still. A mother like ours is more than a memory. She is a living presence.’’
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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