Age:[ 46 ] Gender:[ M ]

	When I was a young boy, there were three words that my mother said
to me each morning, five days a week, nine months a year for 12
years....RISE AND SHINE, she would say. It meant we were to get up for
another day of school.

If I had known then, what I know now, there would have been about five
words I would have said to her each time.  My mother didn't have the
benefit of a good, solid education. But, she was the smartest person I've
ever known. She didn't have a diploma or degree from any school are
university. But, she had a PhD in life and yet another, in love.

Many had said of her that she did too much for us, her children. It was
said that perhaps she loved us too much. But, I ask of you, just how can
you do too much for your children and even more, how can you love them too
much? What people seemed to forget was the circumstances surrounding our
life at home when we were coming up. She had to be both mother and father
to us. Yes, we had a father there, in body. It was mama who did for us, it
was mama who watched out for us, it was mama who calmed our fears.  It was
mama who said that one day things would get better for us, that the light
at the end of the tunnel wasn't an oncoming train. She was right. 

There are so many memories of her that I scarcely know where to begin. One
that seems to be standing out most right now is when we moved to a place
called Woolmarket, MS. This place was so far out in the woods, I think
they had to import daylight to separate day from night. My first day in
the second grade, I was confused as to what bus to take home from school.
So, I decided I would walk home down the road I thought was where we
lived. 'As you can imagine, my mother was frantic when the bus came by our
house and I didn't get off. She got a neighbor to help her go looking for
me, her wayward son. When they came across me, I was so embarrassed, I
didn't want to get in the car. My mother ASSURED me I was getting into
that car. I'll say this...after that incident, I never missed another
school bus for the rest of the time I was in school.

We had some many rough times when we lived in Woolmarket. Many times, we
didn't have food in the refrigerator for us to eat dinner. But, somehow,
someway, mama always put something on the table for us to eat. Once we
ate, then she would eat. That is something I remember about her as I mourn
her passing.  Another time, my mother had taken all she could off of my
father and we left and moved into a home that had the conveniences of
central heat and central air. Unfortunately, we had central heat in the
summer and central air in the winter.

The winters in that home are what I remember most right now. It was so
unbearably cold. We had one small space heater and it was supposed to heat
up the smelly, sweating home in which we lived. I recall once during one
of these terrible winters that I had a terrible cold. We had no car to
take me to the hospital or doctor or no money to pay for either.

What I remember most, was my mama sitting up all night in that hardback
chair, with nothing on her arms to protect her from the bitter
cold...quietly weeping, quietly praying for me throughout that cold,
miserable night. THIS...was my mother. I've often thought the highest
praise you can give any woman is to say she is/was a good mother. This
being the case, my mother was the very personification of a good mother.

She loved us unconditionally and her entire life was devoted to us, right
to the very end. Sure, she had faults, just as we all do. But, she
admitted hers, while so many others find themselves faultless. She's be
the first to admit her faults...she was so very humble.  For the first
time in the 46 1/2 years of my life, I face a Mother's Day without my
beloved mother. It will be difficult, to be sure.

She taught us how to laugh, how to love, how to give comfort, how to live
our lives morally and there at the end...mama showed us how to die. I
comfort myself in the knowledge that she is with Jesus, and her daughter
who was so tragically killed nine years ago...something she never was able
to recover from.

She no longer suffers from crippling arthritis, diabetes, heart disease,
high blood pressure, eye disease or other problems that I can't remember
right now. But, despite it all, my mother's faith in God remained
unshaken, she believed on the Lord with all her might. 

Today, I am happy to tell you, my mother is dancing in victory before the
Lord. She has fought the good fight and I am sure, that the Lord has said
unto her, "WELL DONE, MY GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT, WELL DONE." 

Finally, someday I too must pass from this world, just as we all must. By
the grace of Almighty God, I enter into His Heavenly Kingdom, I will bear
witness to all the saints that went on many years ago, the wonders and
majesty of that magnificient kingdom. Somehow, someway, I just know...I
just know that I will hear that sweet, familiar voice say 'rise and shine'
and I will turn to her and say 'Thanks mama, thanks for everything.