“There is no end to love. There are no doors that are closing. Wash away your fear and worry, wash away the pain. Wrap you in the mother’s gift of love.
-Shawna Carol, Mother’s Gift
My mother died three years ago today. This is part of the eulogy I wrote for her:
There is no replacement for a mother’s love, for the woman who gave us life. When we lose our mother a part of us dies with her. But a larger part of her lives on in us and we carry all the good things within our hearts.
My mother was most grateful for her five children. She taught us no matter how busy life became there was always time to sit down together at the table to share a meal and play a game afterwards. My mother loved the earth, the sea and the sky, loved walks in the rain in her yellow raincoat, loved collecting shells, driftwood and rocks. She loved to read and libraries, loved gardening and bird watching, loved God and the church. She said her faith and her sense of humor were what got her through tough times. She was a rebel, a warrior goddess fighting for the underdog, the homeless, the misunderstood. She was fire and ice and strong as steel.
I remember what my mother gave at home, at soup kitchens, at her restaurants. I remember what my mother taught me about food, about resilience, about prayer. I remember the things my mother made; the hats, blankets and crocheted shawls, all made with stitches of love.
At ninety my mother moved from Tucson to Florida near my sister Mary. Land of crab cakes and key lime pie, of palm trees and moistness, her life was filled with simple pleasures, of toes scrunched in the damp sand, of seagulls soaring overhead, of the sun glistening on the water, replaying the landscape of her youth on Long Island.
My mother told me about the memories that haunted her at night, told me her least favorite time of day was dusk when the shadows were deepest. And she told me stories about her pet chicken Abigail, about her dream of living on a farm, about her kayak rides in the waters around Hewlett Bay with her long legs and life stretched out in front of her…
There is no end to love…
