A mother’s legacy of love and caring is so far reaching. It was brought home to me in a way I hadn’t realized until I was sick several weeks ago. I was quite ill from the flu that is going around, yet I still had to teach as there are no substitutes at my school. After coughing all night and talking all day, I lost my voice. Horrors! I came home that weekend one sick puppy, distressed over how I would be able to teach the next week. I was writing notes to my roommates, friends and church mates hoping to rest my voice enough where I could resume teaching on Tuesday.
Sunday, my friends, Tricia and Pete, followed me home from church to pick-up my crock pot. At 4:00, Tricia called to tell me her mother’s chicken soup was done and if I ate it for three days, it would make me well. Then one of my roommates, Dave, came home, collected a bunch of lemons from the tree in the garden (yes, we have lemons on our trees in December in California), and started making his mom’s fabled lemon-honey cure-all drink. It took a couple of hours of diligent effort in the kitchen. Wow. Before bed, he presented me with a piping hot mug of his mom’s concoction guaranteed to fix what ailed me. Then came the text from my best friend with her Mom’s remedy of a hot shower, lots of blankets to sweat-it-out-from-your-body-in-your-sleep advice.
Each was accompanied by stories about how their moms cared for them when ill and here they were, not consciously aware, that they were doing the same thing with me. I felt very loved in that moment. But beyond that, it dawned on me, a mother’s love goes far beyond her own children. The love and caring she shares with us is the example by which we love and care for others.
I don’t know if it was the soup I ate, the secret honey-lemon drink, or the nights spent sweating under a stack of blankets that fixed me. But I do believe the love I felt, the care I received, made a difference. I wasn’t cured in a weekend, but I was able to teach the next week, scraggly voice and all. I made it through, understanding that we learn to care for others through our mothers’ recipes for healing. It is a legacy that we bring forward with our own family, friends and those in need.
It would be such fun to share our mother’s cure-all recipes, don’t you think? Were there foods and drinks she only made when you were sick? Did she rub your chest with Vicks Vapor Rub? Did she read to you or play games? How did your Mom care for you when you were ill or having a bad day? Please tell your stories below. I can’t wait to read them.
Best, Pam.