29 years ago today...

...was a day that I will never forget. My mother died, suddenly and without any warning, from a heart attack, at an age younger than I am now. Every year on June 12th, I am taken back to that day when I lost my "Mommy".

This picture is the only one I could find from that "era"...the 50s, when I was a child. My mother was a praying mother, however our family was far from "the Cleavers", as this picture suggests. Still, to this very day, I miss her and everything that we missed together. She did see me marry, but she never got to hold her granddaugher. Now, as an only child who is the mother of an only child, I wonder how long the Lord will allow me to continue on in this life. I pray that if it is His will, I will one day be able to hold my grandchild. If and when I do, I will be remembering my Mother and know that somehow she is smiling down on us. There are so many things I wish I had had the chance to tell her...mainly that she was RIGHT about so many things! It took me so long to realize that and then it was too late.

Here is a poem I usually read around Mother's Day. It seems appropriate for today...

AT THE GATE

There is a lovely picture that I see,
As clear and clean-cut as a cameo:
My mother, waiting at the gate for me
Long ago:

A picket gate where yellow roses grew,
The scent of plum blooms fragrant on the air;
Bright leaves above her, the sun shining through,
Lighting her hair.

And I am coming down the old home street:
A shaded street where arching maples were,
A little girl on lightly running feet,
Coming to her.

Oh, often now, when weary of the road
That leads me home, I pause and breathe a prayer
That by some gateway at the close of day
She will be there.

Shading her eyes against the heavenly light,
Peering along a heavenly street to see
That she may catch the first, fluttering white
Glimpse of me.

-Grace Noll Crowell

Mainly, I wish I could tell her that since becoming a Mother myself, I FINALLY know how very much she loved me...

Gladys (McQueen) Dietzel
July 14, 1925
June 12, 1979