Dear Friends,
As we celebrate Mother’s Day this weekend, I thought I would share with you a reflection written by a friend of mine, Susan Naatz, who works at Creighton University. It looks at the importance of family and memories:
Following our father’s death in 2009, Mom decided to remain in the home where they had lived for 45 years. She explained, “I cannot bear to leave the memories I have in this home. We loved living here. I simply cannot leave.”
Yet as the months went by our concern for her began to grow. She was continually feeling great fatigue and the stairs she climbed and descended each day were becoming too much for her. After countless family conversations, she reluctantly and tearfully agreed to move into a place where she would be safer and have more opportunities to interact with her peers.
The months before moving day were filled with countless memories and story-telling as prom dresses were rediscovered, old report cards passed around and dusty baby pictures unearthed. Many emotions surfaced as we emptied the house of its treasures.
Finally it was moving day. Everyone scurried around as we worked to complete the enormous task. Suddenly, just as the men from the moving company had lifted a large, heavy couch, piano music began to softly fill the air. Our mother was seated with her white head bowed over the keys playing the piano exactly as she had played it for so many years.
The music drifted throughout the house and all who were present realized that this was her final farewell to the home where she had lived and loved—the home where she and my father had sheltered and cared for their eight children and blessed their twenty-seven grandchildren.
One by one each person put down their load and turned toward her. Even the men from the moving company lowered the couch and took off their caps. Everything became still as the beautiful music filled the air. Tears flowed. It was a sacred moment of farewell. When she finished playing, she picked up her purse, looked around one last time and walked out the door. I don’t believe there was a dry eye left in the house at that moment.
In the months since our mother moved, we have stopped talking about and driving by our family home. The sadness is diminishing and a new awareness has emerged that whenever we are together we are “home”.
May this weekend be filled with thankfulness and memories of the women who gave you life and cared for you as you grew up. May you have a few moments to say “thank you” to them for the great gift they have been and are to you.
Please let them know that they are loved. Give thanks to God for them and celebrate the way they brought God into your life.
Happy Mother’s Day!!!!!
Fr. Damian