What Moms Do

May is a month known for lots of things. It is American Cheese month. It is Correct Your Posture Month. It is National Asparagus Month. It is National Bar-b-que Month. It is Older Americans Month.

I can certainly identify with each of the categories: cheese(love it), posture(sagging badly), asparagus(okay), bar-b-que(Texas winner), older American(am one). And of course it is time to celebrate Mother's Day. My mother was the most talented woman you would ever want to meet: could sew a costume for a doll or person without a pattern, could write an installation program for any set of officers, could make a bar-b-que sauce that generations adored hot or cold, could teach a S.S. class for any age, could play bridge with players with master points or beginners and always have fun,  and never failed to tell you how much she loved you. Most mothers have the talents that we forget about until they are gone.

Teaching school brought me in contact with many wonderful mothers. At Tech I seldom got a chance to meet mothers of my students, but one became a family friend. It seems the athletic department thought I was fair to athletes, so I had plenty of them in class. Kenny Thiel was a big lineman for Tech who always gave me his best until one morning when we had a test, he sat in his desk and had a blank paper. His friends all Tech players themselves and sitting nearby came to me and said, "Mrs. Womack, Kenny got knocked out in a boxing match yesterday, and he hasn't acted the same since then. The trainer didn't think it was too bad--but he couldn't remember how we were supposed to get to the English building from the dorm." They looked genuinely worried, and Kenny seemed dazed, too. The mother in me took over, so I looked up the card he had filled out for me with his home address(New Deal--thank goodness it was close) and called his mother. "Something's wrong," I said, "and I thought you should know." Janet Thiel came to rescue Kenny and of course listened as a doctor told her that he had a concussion and gave instructions as to what could be done. From that day on we were friends with the entire big Thiel family and often visited their farm. She laughed and laughed when we came out to see the onions harvested, and my city child Ray said, "Wow, there is a lot of dirt here."

At Wilson High School the mothers were just as special as the kids. Sometimes we got fresh tortillas sent to the teacher workroom. Sometimes it was special rolls straight out of the oven. David's mom went all over scouting out any tailor shops that had fabric to give away so that we could make the most amazing costumes for one act play. Tammy's mom made Italian cream cake that was pure-dee heaven when the teachers bought Tammy on a slave sale(not appropriate event today, but the cake was beyond belief). And there was the time that Ginger and Karla were playing basketball and getting just a tad behind with assignments. It was not enough to fail them, of course, but they both dropped a couple of points. Mama came to see me, just to ask what was going on. I told her that it was because they were short on time due to practices and out of town games. She said that the sports emphasis was what she thought had happened, but she just wanted to make sure. "I told Karla," she said to me in a voice that was true and firm, "you're not gonna bounce that little basketball the rest of your life."  That is a proverb that fits many subjects.

Texas mothers faced so many hardships in the early days that it is a wonder families survived. On the trip over here in 1845 thousands died before they got to the Hill Country. Several tales are told of mothers whose husbands died on the ships, and the women had 5 or 6 children to care for as they came to a new land now knowing what would happen. Other women in earlier times also endured difficulties. Guadalupe Ruiz Duran was a beautiful young widow in San Antonio  in 1822 with 3 children who fell madly in love with Erastus "Deaf" Smith who spoke Spanish but didn't like to talk to people at social events because he had trouble hearing them. They married, had their own children, and he was gone for weeks at a time on hunting expeditions or scouting missions for Sam Houston. Houston said Deaf was his best source of information before the Battle of San Jacinto.  Guadalupe took care of the family and their ranch land while Deaf was gone and moved to different places when he sent word that they were starting a new home. Though she had been used to the world of Bexar(as they called San Antonio) with shops and tradesmen and parties and dances, she gave all of it up to be Deaf's wife and live with no neighbors close. She was in charge of raising the children, and that's what she did.

Mothers--they defend us, praise us, reward us, and love us when few in the world think we are worth the time and effort.