It’s another bright day in NYC. Work starts the moment my screens come alive. I noticed a mail from my studio designer, Alyssa. She had submitted her designs for the upcoming Mother’s Day. She lives in Fairmont, Minnesota. She is an offbeat freelancer and works online for our greetings studio.
I love her work especially her “gratitude to mom” collection of online greetings and as I was keying in my response, my eyes fell on the time she’d sent the mail, 3.26 a.m. I wondered what kept her awake all night, we were ahead of time. I decided to do a video calling rather than mailing her.
After the formal greetings were shared, I asked her about her schedule and she said she only works during the night time. Just then I saw a young boy in his teens in the background, he limped in close to Alyssa, he seemed to have wetted his pants and was complaining in a child-like gestures. Alyssa excused herself and the screen went off.
I was a little shaken and I waited for her to call back. She called in a while and said, “Andrew is my son, he’s a special child, Bob.” I was searching for the right words when she stated, rather strongly as if she needed no words of sympathy from me, “everything is okay!
I am glad he is in my life. Each moment I am learning the meaning of love a mother is capable of giving which is free from the attachments to rewards and where there is no space for the expressions and protocols, sometimes it’s stressful when he cannot hold his limbs together and I have to carry him from one room to the other.
There is a lot of guilt I feel at times when I fail to understand his gestures or be there for him,” she had tears in her eyes, I understood the fact that she was venting out and probably needed me to just listen to her so I kept silently engaged in the conversation.
I said, I understood, even though I will never be able to measure the pain and love of a mother in such circumstances.
She continued, “at times, he forgets who I am and looks strangely at me when I go to collect him from his school. But it’s gratifying, when sometimes he comes to me and hugs me in his own special way, grinning from cheek to cheek, those are the brightest days of my life.”
I had called her to applaud for her thank-you-mom ecards’ creative and here I had stumbled upon an exemplary mother who was serving her child with unconditional love, devoid of all ‘normal’ expectations.
In the eyes of our moms we are special even when the rest of the world doesn’t bat an eyelid. She is the best translation of the Bible in action. She needs no thank you notes but she deserves our gratitude.
I knew she was a single mother so I inquired who is there to give her a hand in the family. She smiled through her tears and said with relief and a lot of gratitude in her voice, “my mom!”
Let’s share our experiences of life which have left a mark in our hearts.
P.S. Post your comments here or tweet me @Bob123Editor with the #MothersDay.
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