May 10th falls on Mother's Day

Every year instead of checking the calendar to see what day Mother's Day falls on, I check to see where May 10th falls. A few times in the last 22 years it has ended up on Mother's Day. Just like it did in 1987.

On that date I was up at the church getting ready to teach a youth Bible study when Steve walked in and told me there had been an accident. That is all he said but I knew what the rest of the story was going to be. "She's dead isn't she?" were the words that came out of my mouth. Don't ask me how I knew, I just did. Just like I knew something was wrong the day I called to check on her only to hear her crying on the other end of the phone because her husband told her he was moving out. Or the times through Jr. High and High School when one would call the other because we had a feeling things weren't right.

We always called ourselves "twin cousins" because we looked somewhat alike. But it was deeper than that. I used to think about her all the time, remembering all the fun times we had. Remembering the times we cried together and laughed together. When we were younger and all the cousins, aunts, and uncles would gather at my grandmothers' house, Paula and I would always sit together at the dinner table. Until our parents separated us because we couldn't ever finish our meal for the laughter. Almost every time. We would just look at each other and start laughing. We played racketball and laughed. We bowled and laughed. Everything we did, we laughed. Oh, I miss that so much.

I find myself still thinking about all the fun times we had, but more often now I think of when I will see her again. She's gonna be waiting for me at the gate smiling from ear to ear, running to embrace. Michael bought me a 'Women of the Way' piece that is called "Joyous Reunion". The way the two are embracing brings tears to my eyes because I know that is what I have to look forward to. We're going to hold on tight. Sweetness. What a blessed day that will be.

Jesus, tell her hi for me. Tell her I eat a Reese's Cup on our birthdays, on the first snowfall of the year, and if there is another reason to celebrate, just like we always did. Tell her that her grandbabies are beautiful and mine is too. That I have a horse and chickens and a garden. She'll get a kick out of that. Tell her I'm amazingly happy. Then again, maybe You don't have to tell her. I have a feeling she just knows.






Don't you love the 80's hair?