Many Mothers In My Life

The big day arrived- Mark Steven decided to make his appearance a month early. He was due Feb. 26th. Went to the hospital about 2:30 pm and he arrived at 3:53 PM. His cord was unusual it measured about 4 feet long. Was so surprised to hear that we had a boy. Louise Wilson’s Diary–1/27/71

It was almost a year ago that I put up my first post on the Catholic Bard. It was on Mother’s Day 2020. I chose Mother’s Day on purpose to officially start posting so that I could remember the day I got this wonderful opportunity to contribute my thoughts and writing to the world in such a unique and creative way. Mother’s Day is the day Patheos Catholic gave birth to the Catholic Bard.

And here we are Mother’s Day 2021 one year later.

And here I am still writing and posting.

Time to remember our mothers once more with their own special day.

My mother was my best friend growing up.

She bent over backwards to provide me with a happy childhood.

She got a job driving a bus just so that I could be with her.

She would help my creative endeavors by drawing whatever pictures I asked her to draw for me.

She drew pictures on my lunch bag. I called this my drawing lessons even though it was her who did the drawing.

Mark will not let me alone. He wants me to write about him so he can know what he did when he was small. He wants to be sure I put in that Laurie stepped on his toe. He wants also to have me put in about his “ Sean & Marky” comic books that he makes. He gets the ideas and dictates his ideas to me each night so I can draw them. He calls them Our “Drawing Lessons”. But I have to do all the drawing. Louise Wilson’s Diary-July 2nd, 1977

In one particular video I made for my 8th grade history class on Lewis and Clark, she dressed up as a charging elk wearing a fur coat and an Alf mask.

My mother is the reason I don’t swear or drink alcohol. There was a time I didn’t listen to rock music, cause my mother didn’t.

Her all-time favorite musical artist is Merle Haggard and this is the song we danced to at our wedding.

There was the time my father wanted to take me to an R rated movie called the Eye of the Needle. I didn’t go because my mother wouldn’t have liked it.

When I was older and I visited her she would have the meatloaf that I loved frozen in the freezer waiting for me whenever I came to visit.

Before I forget- One day Mark insisted on eating a cookie just before lunch. I told him “no’. Then Patty tried to explain to him that sweets would give him “cavities” I then asked him if he wanted soup, baloney or waffles. He replied “I want cavities”. Louise Wilson’s Diary November 7th, 1974

She would also whip out a chair and grab some scissors and insist she cut my hair.

Mark had his first haircut. They were long in back with some snarlies- off they came. Now our boy looks like a boy. (he now weighs 81/2 lbs) Louise Wilson’s Diary March 28th, 1971

On a trip back from Ohio one year I called her on mother’s day just to tell her I didn’t have time to talk to her that day. Then I rang the doorbell a few minutes later.

Whenever I called her she was never sure I was down the street or across the country.

She wasn’t Catholic but she did help install in me a reverence for God and other people. I saw her prepare her communion for her Methodist church service and saw her reading her Upper Room Meditation on a regular basis. She, combined with my father, helped instill in me a religious faith that was real and grounded in loving God by serving others.

She always put up with my many interesting and quirky friends that I brought by the house. She always put up with me and was constantly amazed by me.

Today is a fabulous day- Mark asked to go to the potty & did #2. I almost dropped from shock. He is now “trained” and I didn’t think the day would ever arrive. He is no anxious to make his mother “proud & happy”. I now have to go out and by two pair of zipper pants and a “zoom shirt” (stupid). Everyone kept telling me this day would arrive but I didn’t believe them.
Louise Wilson’s Diary June 20th, 1974 2 mounts before Kristin was Born.

My mom has been gone from this earth since October 2016 and at times I still miss her.

But I have other moms in my life to help support, encourage and discipline me. Mother’s do all these things.

My mother in-law Kathy Nealon looks out for me and my wife. I don’t give her enough appreciation and I want to take this Mother’s Day to say I love you and thank you for treating me like a son. I appreciate and am amazed still you remember everyone who came to our wedding and when everybody’s birthday is. Thanks for being kind enough to give me my wonderful wife who acts like a mother to our daughter, never giving up on her despite the fact that she gave up on us. My own daughter is a mother as well, but we have yet to see the baby, cause she’s not talking to us.

Back to Kathy. Here is a quick little quip of a story the illustrates her in full mother mode.

Now I’m telling this first part of the story, so I can tell the second part that comes afterwards.

There was one time when visiting our house my Mother and Father-in-Law were somewhat displeased that our house wasn’t as exactly clean as it should be. She comes out of the bathroom and says

“What’s This”.

My wife gave the obvious answer. “A Towel. ” It had the word Harry on it. Harry was my dad.

She said something like “It’s Dirty”. My wife asked if she wanted a new one and she said “No I’ll let my hands Drip Dry”.

My mother got mad at me once when she was trying to explain to me how to fold pants and I didn’t take her seriously. I mean she got really mad. Sometimes you can’t fool mothers.

Mark will soon be 8 and hasn’t changed drastically. He is “allergic” to work. He was told if he wet his bed because he wouldn’t get up, that there would no Sat TV programs. When I came down at 7:30 AM he told me he was going to keep his pajamas as on all day. Knowing he was “fooling me” I wasn’t surprised to see him all dressed, wrapped in his blanket, laying on a made bed. I asked if the bed was wet & he replied “ don’t think so”. When I uncovered the bed- it was. I then got mad because he lied to me. He said he thought it would be dry by the time I looked & he was “afraid”. I pointed out that it was the lie I was mad at and TV was off. We sat through a silent breakfast & he didn’t cry or complain as I got the wheels rolling to see how I could get out of that one. I sat him down & we discussed what a lie was (he knew) & I told him if he would clean the pile of leaves up in the backyard by himself he could come in & watch TV. He stated off on his big job. First he scattered the leaves all he could so there would be less to carry away. Then I brought a rake. Then he got a big barrel which he filled so he wouldn’t’ have to make more then one trip. He finally found out he couldn’t’ carry it- there upon I emptied it out & he continued with the smaller barrel. He tried dumping the leaves out the back gate as it was closer- but I saw him & squashed that venture. Back he went to the grind of work. He kept calling to see if that “ was all”, but I hung in until it was all done I hope he has learned something today- Louise Wilson’s Diary-Nov 11th, 1978

My friend Marshall’s mother, Merilyn Myers, whom I lived with her and Marshall for a while, when I was chit chatting with Marshall one night came in the room and said “Shouldn’t you go to sleep”?

Mother’s get concerned about these types of things. No matter what age, Mother’s will point out these activities of daily living to their kids. Kristin does it too.

One time when my parents went on vacation, when I was maybe a teen or in my early 20’s living at home, my father said to me before they left with his finger pointing at me “And NO Hanky Panky”.

When I would go outside without shoes he would say “Don’t Be a Hero.”

Father’s always try to bestow on their kids piffy bits of wisdom. I’m sure I have also.

My father-in-law John on this occasion with the Harry towel tried to do the same thing. He said

“What would you do if Jesus walked through the door?”

This was supposed to invoke a sense of reflection and contemplation about the errors of our ways. Instead it invoked from my wife, laughter.

No, you don’t understand.

Top 30 [hysterical Laughing] GIFs | Find the best GIF on Gfycat

I mean fall down on the floor, face red, not being able to breath, uncontrollable laughter that lasts several several minutes. When something strikes my wife as funny, She laughs. I have had to pause TV shows when this happens so we don’t miss any of the show were watching. I had to tell her to keep quiet once when we were in court for something to stop laughing so we wouldn’t get in trouble from the judge. Just where did she get this non-stop laughter? From her mother of course. When Kristin started laughing, it spread. Tension broken; my mother in-law burst out laughing. Long and hard she laughed up storm. And of course, John ended up laughing a lot also. Mother’s may be full of toughness at times but their full of joy just as much.

Mark finally lets me go through the night. I have fooled him- I put an empty bottle in his bed during the night and I in the morning he finds it and sucks away on it. He is a little peach of an imp. Has taken 2 or 3 steps alone but still won’t walk off on his own. Needs a finger or some assurance he won’t fall. Now bites (my poor shoulder) screams when he gets mad, laughs at everything and in general is getting a personality. Louise Wilson’s Diary April 5th, 1972

My mother also had me fooled thinking butter and margarine were the same thing.

As for other mother’s there is My Grandmother in Law Elaine who is the grandmother I never had.

Mark said today that he had no grandma or grandpa as they were in heaven. Then he said. “Someday I’ll see them there? “ I said yes. And he in return said. “Will I see Walt Disney too?”
Louise Wilson’s Diary July 10th, 1977

Of course, there is also the blessed mother who prays for us Now and at the Hour of our Death. She can be both tough and loving as well.