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I imagine you feel the same way I do, even though you are a Mom, Mother’s day is still about your Mom! And even though I haven’t celebrated with my Mom in over 20 years, the day is still about her. She was, to quote a favorite line from a prayer, “my light my sweetness and my hope.”  As David Venable often says (even though she was in heaven before I met David) “A very wise woman once said….” And then will quote my Mom. She was born in Mahanoy City in the “coal regions” of upstate Pennsylvania, the youngest of four daughters.  She and all of her sisters graduated from Immaculata College in the late 1930’s and 40’s, quite unusual in those days. She often thought she had a vocation to the religious life like her two sisters, until Sylvester Rudolph came into her life and the rest is history!

But how she loved children and loved being a Mom! I am the youngest of five but she really wanted nine!!  She had the uncanny ability to say the right thing no matter what was going wrong in my life.  I always think that a cup of tea with Mom would pretty much cure anything. She passed away much too soon for such a vibrant, wonderful woman when I was in my late 20’s, but thanks to her stories and her impact I feel  she lives on today and you know her too.

 

Two of her sisters entered the religious order, Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, known as the IHM’s.  I was visiting my Aunt Theresa many years ago (who just passed away at 96), and I was sad that when I would have children my Mom wouldn’t know. She looked at me with a smile and said, “Janie your Mom will know you are going to have a baby before you do!”  And she was so right; my girls will often comment that they miss Grammy, so her spirit is alive with them. I was so proud when I was interviewed for the book “Wise Irish Women” and I was able to tell her story of wisdom and love.  But she was hysterically funny too, a woman of many facets.  Here is a favorite photo from my wedding, when we greeted each other after the ceremony. That’s a picture of love.

 

I recently went to a Mother/Daughter Communion Breakfast, and another awesome IHM Sister spoke about the bond of Mother and child.  She told us “From the moment you were conceived, only two people knew about your life, God and your Mother. Their love for you is powerful and never ending.”  How true that is.

Happy Mother’s Day!

-Jane