When the week flies by as it did this past week, I get to sit at my desk staring at my computer screen with one big blank thought on what I can write for a column.
I suppose it happens more than you’d think, and since I’ve been doing this for more than 24 years, it has happened far more than I’d like to admit.
One thing I’d like to mention since we are coming fresh off Mother’s Day last weekend, I’ve seen so many great tributes to moms everywhere on Facebook. Many of heralded mothers have passed away, like mine, and many still here. Surprisingly enough, a lot of the older moms are on Facebook.
The tributes to deceased mothers are so heartfelt and loving and some can actually make you cry reading them.
I love when people display a photo of their mother from their youth. We only see moms in an elder state that sometimes we forget these beloved women were young, vibrant, and beautiful with glowing skin. Many of those photos are in black and white.
As a photographer, you’d think I’d like the black-and-white format, but honestly, I don’t. I’ll look at a black and white and wonder what the scene looked like live and in color. I’ve colorized so many of my parents and grandparent’s old photos just to give it a sense of today.
I colorized one of my parent’s wedding photos of them in the car after the ceremony. I admit, I never really paid too much attention to the photo other than they were smiling.
When I colorized it, I looked deeper into the photo noticing the dark clouds and raindrops on the car windows. I never knew it was a rainy day when they married on June 21, 1952, the first day of summer.
They probably thought the first day of summer, the weather would be great, like hot and sunny. Not the case that day.
The other thing I noticed was they were hand-in-hand, something I can say I can’t recall ever seeing during my lifetime.
They were so happy in that photo and happiness did not come too easy with my mother. She was a child of Italian immigrants that spoke enough English to just get by. When her dad passed away when she was 6-years-old, her young heart was crushed. Her father was her hero.
My grandmother was left a widow in a country she was not familiar, raising four children. How crushing that must have been to her.
Mom’s life was sad for many years and schooling was not easy for her. Although she always told me she wanted to be a nurse, she had to quit school at 16 years old to go to work to help provide along with her older brother and sister.
My father brought joy to her life and seeing those faces light up in the back of that car says it all to me.
As I worked on colorizing the photo, I felt myself getting swallowed into the photo to the point where I felt I was the one peeking into the car with my camera to snap that photo. It felt so real to me through my imaginary viewfinder.
Just as the beginning of my mother’s life started with a tragedy like the loss of her father, her ending wasn’t so nice either. At the age of 55, my mother had to face the fact that her husband was diagnosed with a form of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Luckily for her, this time she did not have to bear this travesty on her own, she had three children to lean on.
Dad, of course, who worked so hard all of his life most times working two jobs, did not deserve his eventual demise. He was a nice man and if there is anyone reading this that knew him, would agree unequivocally.
Mom passed away 20 years almost to the day of my father’s death anniversary and those years of decline were not easy to watch as her child.
For a woman who took so much pride of her home, she was not given the privilege of dying in her own home. She spent one year in assisted living and the last two at a nursing home.
I wish then I had the means to take care of her at home, but I, nor my siblings, could and thankfully there are nursing homes available to us in times of need.
One of my favorite shows just ended its run on TV, Young Sheldon. If you watched the Big Bang Theory, you knew Sheldon’s father had a heart attack and died when Sheldon was 14 years old. At the end of Young Sheldon, his father died and Sheldon wished he told his father anything including I love you, but that didn’t happen. His father went off to work Sheldon didn’t say goodbye.
After his dad died, Sheldon racked his brain on what he should have said to his father.
At my mother’s end, I too did not get a chance to look at her in the eyes and say goodbye, but just before she lapsed into a coma state, she opened her eyes, looked at me and said clearly, “Give me a kiss.”
I did and that was the last thing she ever said to me… I consider myself a bless man.
Quote of the Week
“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear.” – Rosa Parks
Thought of the Week
“If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.” – Jim Rohn
Bumper Sticker
“All great achievements require time.” – Maya Angelou
