Mothers and Daughters

With the passing of my mother on August 19, 2009, I have become a part of a group of daughters who have lost their mothers. It doesn’t matter when your mother passed, it could have been two weeks, two months, two years, or twenty years or any time in between, there is a bond that binds you for a moment in time and the tears flow freely. I still cannot say “My mother passed away” without crying, so it is hard when we meet face to face for me to tell you why at that moment I am sad. I believed that with the passing of time the sadness of the loss would lessen and that is a mistaken notion. You go on daily about your everyday life and then something will remind you of your mother, or you think I need to tell my mom about this she would love to hear about it and you go to pick up the phone and of course she’s not there to answer the call. You feel the same feeling of loss all over again. You do move on with life and go about your business, but the sadness at the loss of your mom is always with you and at different times you think about her.

I will miss the time I could pick up the phone and call and talk to my mother about anything and everything. I will miss the time that she would call me and tell me it has been too long since I called home to check in and that she was just checking on me. Even though I have children and grandchildren my mother would still call and check on me, and what a comfort that is, to have that “Unconditional Love” from my mom. I know that my mom still loves me and that now her feet don’t hurt her, she doesn’t hurt when she stands up, she is not getting injected three or more times a day and that she has a freedom she has not felt in years and this does bring me comfort. She is also reunited with her mother and the others in her family who have passed away.

I am deeply grateful to my mother for teaching me about my Danish heritage. I love passing on to my children those same traditions that were always a part of my years growing up. Danish pastries, Christmas is just not Christmas without Danish pastries, ask my children if they don’t believe the same thing. Ableskevers, breakfast, lunch or dinner is always a good time for Ableskevers. Frikadeller, is another Danish meal that my children love. I love the Danish Christmas Plates that now hang in my home from my mother. I love that she taught me to sew, knit, crochet and I love to do these things. I also have in my home the counted cross stitch pieces that I did for my mother as another reminder of her. I also love to quilt which was a gift from my grandmother (my dad’s mom). I love that she taught me to love my Heavenly Father and my Savior to put those things in my life that will make me the happiest. It makes me think of all the things that our moms and grandmothers do for us in very small ways.

I now look at my own daughters and hope that I have passed on to them the same traditions and more that my mom passed on to me, all those family traditions, which make our houses homes of love. I also want to pass on to my children the tradition of a strong gospel centered home where you know that you are loved, and one last thing please remember to check in with your mom, because I too love you unconditionally.





PS. Jacob thanks for your strength the night that your dad called to tell me that my mom had passed away.

Look out here comes another one

It has been a great month. Of course what makes it great is that Paul was home for most of it. I love it when Paul is home with us. We also went to AZ to spend Christmas with family and that was great fun. We all got together on Christmas Eve for our FHE and the focus on the Savior. We then opened gifts from each other and the granddaughters received presents from their Grandparents. Our youngest granddaugther Milan loves shoes (takes after the girls in the family). When she visits at my house she gets out my shoes and walks around in them. So for Christmas this year we gave her shoes. She now owns her own pair of high heels (well as high as the dress up shoes you can buy). She was so excited for the shoes and she is such a girl when it comes to things like that. We got Heaven our other granddaughter a purse from the mammal store in DC. She will not find anything like it and we filled it with lip gloss and nail polish. I have to admit it is more fun to shop for the granddaughters. We spent the week visiting family and on Saturday we had a Harris family get together to celebrate our parents 80th birthdays this year. Bar-b-que chicken and lots of other food. We ate so much this past two weeks that when it comes time for dinner we all look at each other and are not much interested in finding something to eat.

We spent New Years Day together as a family (those that were in New Mexico) and had a Mexican Fiesta including homemade tamales from our daughter-in-law. Time is growing short and on January 5 I have to put Paul back on the plane to DC and that is such a bummer, but he already has his ticket for the flight back in May for Jacobs graduation on the 23rd. Jacob also is now 18 and we took him out for dinner and gave him the you are now an adult speech. One high note also this last month is that Jacob received his patriarchial blessing and that was such a great experience that Paul and I had with Jacob. It has been a busy month and now that a new year has begun I am grateful for the blessings in my life.