THE PURPLE IRIS: TRIBUTE TO MY MOM

We lost my mom last week, January 8, 2013, after a long and debilitating illness. I'd like to share the poem we included in her funeral program:

God's Garden

God looked around his garden

And found an empty place,

He then looked down upon the earth

And saw your tired face,

So He put His arms around you

And lifted you to rest.

God's garden must be beautiful,

For He always takes the best.

He knew that you were suffering

He knew you were in pain.

He knew that you would never

Get well on earth again.

He saw the road was getting rough

So He closed your weary eyelids

And whispered, "Peace will now

Be thine." It broke our hearts to lose you,

But you didn't go alone,

For part of us went with you

The day God called you home.

And below is the Mother's Day tribute I wrote for her on Mother's Day, 2011:

"After Dad retired from the military and they settled in North Carolina, on visits home when we lived out of state and many hours away, (if during flower season), she so loved showing off her flowers and plants in the yard--they were like her friends, or at least family members :). Her favorite flower has always been the purple iris, and I will always think of her when I see irises."

My mom is 83 years old, and I am so thankful to still have her with us! Although her mind is clear, she has numerous health issues that affect her quality of life. Always a fighter in spite of those, she now spends much of her time reading inspirational fiction at her skilled nursing facility only a few miles from our home. She's always loved crossword puzzles, too.

With advanced COPD, diabetes, neuropathy, congestive heart failure (to name a few), she is not able to do much physically these days. In younger days and better health, she was always busy, and could work rings around me! She loved to garden, tend to her flowers, sew (she made most of my clothes as I was growing up), cook, and read. She often said that there were not enough hours in the day to accomplish everything she wanted to do, as her mental curiosity knew no bounds. There were boxes of recipe clippings attesting to the fact that she loved to try new recipes (and our family, the recipients of those efforts, always enjoyed that!).

As mentioned, she made most of my clothes, but she still sewed when our daughters were young, making them sundresses, rompers, Easter outfits--she even made our oldest daughter's piano recital dress, a floor-length yellow semi-formal gown, when Holly was ten or eleven. She had tackled making neckties for my late dad years ago, and he enjoyed wearing them. For those of you old enough to remember men's leisure suits, she made one for my brother as a young man, in blue to match his eyes. She also made my wedding dress in white velvet, trimmed in lace and chiffon. She made her own apparel for the wedding, too: a dress and matching coat, as well as the bridesmaids' white muffs and rose headpieces (it was a December wedding--their dresses were dark red velvet).