Let every day be Mother’s Day

I called my mother at mid-afternoon on July 29. The question was always same, as was the answer.

“How’d you feel (a certain number of) years ago?” “Great! I’d just had a wonderful baby boy.”

I, of course, was the baby, born at 2:20 p.m. on July 29, 1943.

In 2000, I didn’t get to make the call; she died 10 months earlier. Such traditions are hard to give up, much less forget. 

Mom (Violet Johnson) and I were close because we never were apart the first  two and a half years of my life. 

Dad was at an Army post in Louisiana the day I was born at the old St. John’s Hospital, east of iola. He wangled a short furlough to come home to see me before shipping out for England and eventually to participate in the Normandy Invasion of Europe nearly a year later.

Meanwhile, Mom and I took up residence with her parents in Humboldt.

From then until Dad returned to the U.S. and was discharged late in 1945, it was just Mom and I, day and night. She was as much my buddy as my mother.

She tossed me balls to try to catch and hit, made sure I didn’t  tumble from my tricycle, played all sorts of games outdoors and in, helped me learn to fish and did most anything else that entered my young mind. My grandparents, Sherman and Ada Oliphant, also were near at hand. If I was hungry, grandma fixed whatever I wanted; granddad was a surrogate for Dad. Truth be known, I probably was a little spoiled. 

Sister Jenelle, born in 1950, and I grew up with two sets of parents in that extended family setting — Mom was an only child — until college beckoned.

For any number of reasons kids today don’t always have the advantage of a stay-at-home mom, much less grandparents within earshot. Not being a psychologist, I don’t know what effect that has, but for me the experience is a cherished memory.

In a little over two months, July 29 will roll around again and I’ll think about the call I no longer can make, but I do know somewhere in Heaven Mom will be smiling and thinking about me on the day.

SUNDAY is Mother’s Day. If you’re lucky to have yours nearby, give her a smile, a hug and tell her how much you love her.

Better yet, do it every day of the year; each mother deserves no less.