My mother (1911-1994) was the love of my childhood. When I started school, I insisted for several years that my mother wave to me from our bay window as I walked one block from our home to Fairbanks Elementary School in Terre Haute, Indiana.
The last thing I would say to Mother upon leaving for school with my books in hand was, “Don’t forget to wave.”
On very rare occasions she got busy, so I would wait a few minutes at the corner and if she did not appear, I would run back to the house and remind her of our daily ritual. I don’t remember when or why we stopped waving.
Sadly, with the passing of the years, when I reached the age of accountability, my heart turned cold towards my mother. By the time I was 15, I was living a life of self-indulgence and dishonor to my mother and father. This was a very shameful period of my life.
I remember one terribly inconsiderate Mother’s Day, when my mother lamented at the end of the day that I had not wished her a happy Mother’s Day. How does a boy from such a loving home become so selfish? Saint Paul called it “the mystery of iniquity.”
Thankfully, when I converted to Christianity at 29 years old, my love for my mother was quickly renewed as I learned to walk with God day by day.
Mother has been in Heaven for 24 years. I look forward to the future when we will meet again along “the river of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb,” never to part.
Is it any wonder one of favorite songs of this Hoosier boy is, “On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away?” My childhood home on South Sixth Street was just blocks from the Wabash River. This nostalgic song by Paul Dresser, which is the state song of Indiana, is also a wonderful Mother Day’s song.
