It's Never too late to Write MOM a Letter?

It's been so long

and 

much to Say

Dona Anderson
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I never know what will inspire me to write each of these posts.

It can be a word, a picture, a smell and this one was hearing a man on TV saying he wrote a letter to his Mom some 30 years after her death ... it touched a place in my heart to do the same.   

Love this picture of her 

My Mom passed the month I turned 29.

She was 66.

The year before we had just returned from living in Europe for 5 years and a month later she was sick with Brain cancer.

It's hard when you don't live in the same place and my 2 older sisters and I all lived an 8-10 hour drive away, all worked full time with families.

We felt lost and sad that our Dad was all alone but he kept us up to date and we all made it to where they operated to hold her hand, give out kisses and support our Dad.  I don't know what she knew as she couldn't talk and didn't seem to know what was going on.

In her recovery she had to relearn to talk again and other basic needs. My sisters and I all took turns going home to visit, talk to her and support Dad until her passing about a year later.

I remember my Dad saying the first time you return home after the passing was awful.  You're all alone after years of being married. He said it was the worst feeling ever.

I had a tough time with it all and grieved badly for many years. I missed her and instead of focusing on celebrating her life like I should have, I held on to all the wrong things.

The month she passed, who am I going to talk to, my kids want their grandmother, you have more to tell me and on and on.

All those selfish things, the me and I's

Although I still miss her all these years later, I know that grief changes over time and I finally got comfortable with all the wonderful things I did receive.

And, all these years later I've had friends in their 60's & 70's who still had their Mom so I reminded them how lucky they were.

I guess it's never to late to Write your Mom a Letter.

Some of what I'd say

Mom never got 
a chance to see ...

Mom never got a chance to see her little Grandchildren grow up into amazing & successful adults and become wonderful Parents to all her beautiful great Grandchildren.

She didn't know how my Sisters and I grew in life as unique individuals that keep passing on many of her talents and wonderful qualities in our own way.

Learning Life Skills

the old fashioned way...

Looking back I realize that even though our time was Short she gave us many life skills that prepared us for life at the time, and that I used later.

As a child I watched her for hours cutting out material for our clothes and having to have all the fabric placed right, all the patterns match up, and then sewing it all so the darts, seams, buttons and zippers were all straight and perfect.

I remember getting her to help me with a sewing project I had to do for school, a nightgown. I had to tell and remind her it can't be perfect as I was suppose to be the maker.  She agreed but still got 85% on it.

My Mom loved Christmas, bowling and playing bridge. I watched her cooking our meals every day, baking and making cakes and pies to go with our family Sunday Supper and other celebrations.

It was different times way back then.

We didn't have today's modern conveniences, so growing up we had to help with lunch & supper dishes everyday, with the meals, help with laundry, do our ironing (which in the earlier days was pretty much everything we wore and that required dampening first, no wash & go from the old wringer washer).  Later on the automatic ones helped a bit.

Oh, and yes We also had to have our house cleaning,  yard chores and homework done or we couldn't go out. Later on, I had lots of don't complain examples to share with my kids.

And from a young age I remember having to go out to get groceries with the list, and walk around town to pay the utility bills so I knew what things cost and the places where money went every month.

All this later became 

valuable gifts ...

In my Heart, MOM already knows and sees all of what the letter to her would say and since I've been crying every time I've been working on this over the last several months, the letter will have to be for another time.

The letter will have to be for another time...

Love you MOM.

Mom's name was Lydia

and 

Happy Mother's Day 

to all Moms here

and in Heaven!

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Does Heaven receive mail like the North Pole does for Santa Claus?