A Tribue to My Mother

My 88-year-old mother is the most naturally optimistic person I have ever known. She would have no idea what you are talking about if you said she was a proponent of the power of positive thinking– she just lives it. One example illustrates my point. No matter the weather, she enjoys it. Good morning, I will say, how are things this fall morning? Well, I’m just loving watching the leaves fall. Or, there’s a nice gentle rain falling and we need it. Or, The sky is the bluest I’ve ever seen– just beautiful. If it’s snowing, she’s ecstatic, It’s snowing and I just love it. And I’m going out to get some snow to make snow cream.

These are minor issues for sure, but she’s that way about nearly everything. She plays the cards that are dealt her and she gets through the territory without whimpering, complaining, or making foolish choices. Oh, I forgot to mention, she’s dealt with colon cancer, kidney cancer, and breast cancer, including chemotherapy.

On the following day after her last chemo treatment, she was ready to get her life back. So, she got out on the property to do some walking and slipped on the morning dew and broke her ankle that was almost a compound fracture. There was a bright blood spot big as a quarter right on the surface of her ankle with the bone just underneath. She wasn’t found for well over an hour. Surgery followed and she wore a cast for several weeks. Did all of that keep her down and depressed? Nope. She even went to a grandson’s wedding in a beautiful dress with a cast that came up to just below her knee. All of these problems came in a period of about two years– all of which was nearly twenty years ago.

No matter the circumstances, if you ask how she’s doing, her reply is always the same, I think I’m a little better, which I’ve told her for years is going to be the epitaph on her grave stone. I Think I’m a Little Better

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Excerpt from my new book-- Don't Ever Top Believing... The Best is Yet to Come-- to be released in early July.