Thank You, Mom

Thanksgiving is this week and I’ve been thinking about those things that make me thank God for such goodness in my life. Sometimes I get a little bogged down in the problemsI face and forget about the blessings. Today, and this entire week, I want to remember the blessings.

I have a wonderful family. I’m grateful for good health of myself, my husband and my kids. Especially my kids. I’m grateful that any time I’ve laid my problems at God’s feet, He has taken care of them. I’m grateful for a father who was a “feminist” before the word was invented. Most of all, I’m grateful for my mother. As I prepared to write about a really great product, Freeze It Gel, I thought about my mom and about how her ever-giving nature has left her body aching.

My mom spent most of her adult life as a Registered Nurse. She worked in surgery because that allowed her to work dayturn and be with us kids when we weren’t in school. My mom, though, loved patient care so much more than the paper work that became more and more the part of the nurse’s job. In fact, she was awarded several Employee of the Month recognitions because of all the compliments she got from patients whenever my mom did pre-opp rounds. It was just part of her nature, I suppose, to do for others.

When her own mother was diagnosed with cancer and was unable to live alone, my parents moved their bed to their (unfinished) basement to allow my grandmother to have a hospital bed in my parent’s room. My mom nursed her mother for 8 months, lifting her, cleaning her and always doing it with love and joy.

Over the past 20 years, even after her retiring from nursing, my mother took in and cared for my dad’s brother as he was dying of cancer, my dad’s sister who became bedridden with age and passed away in October, 2005 at age 95 and finally, my mom’s own sister, Helen, who we lost this past January.

These were not just old people. These were cherished loved ones who needed full time care. All became bedridden; all needed constant help with simple functions. My mother, despite her own advanced age, just continued to care for these family members, always giving of herself.

During this same time, over these past almost 30 years, my mother’s home has been always filled with grandkids. I doubt anyone who visited my mom can remember a time when there wasn’t at least one – and usually several – grandchildren hanging around.

All of this caring for others, though, has taken a toll on my mom’s body. Working in Surgery all those years, on concrete floors, has left my mother with terribly painful arthritis in her knees. Lifting patients, both at work and those she brought into her home, is responsible for shoulder, neck and wrist pain. And yet my mom keeps going, caring now for my dad who is becoming less able to care for himself and running around with grandkids, to football games or school plays.

I’d love to give my mom a year of pain relief and I know that Freeze It could do just that. I had a sample of it a few months ago and my mom just loved it. She was amazed at how well it worked and by using it at bedtime, she even was able to sleep through the night without the pain jolting her awake. She even uses it just before she makes her famous Peanut Butter fudge because the stirring always causes some muscle strain and Freeze It is great for that, too.

You know, there are a lot of really great mothers around. I like to think that I’ve taught my own kids important lessons about life, love and being a good person. I realize though that my mother taught me so much about how to live a good life, about not just giving to others but actually doing for others. My mom taught me about what true selflessness is, not by only giving things and money (and she did that, also), but by giving herself. Her actions have been the example of what love, kindness and goodness really are.

I’d love to give my mom a pain free life. More than anyone else I know, she deserves that. I’m just so happy that we’ve learned about Freeze It. It really has made my mom’s quality of life so much better.

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