As far back as I can remember, I knew that I had the best mother in the world. She was warm, gentle and loving. When I hurt, she comforted me. I learned that the hurt diminished with love. Once I was roller-skating in the kitchen while she was cooking dinner. I slipped and crashed to the floor, breaking my arm. It really hurt! I howled. She turned the dinner off, helped me up off the floor and took me to the doctor. I learned I was more important to my mother than cooking that dinner. The doctor put on a cast and, in a few short weeks, I was good as new. I learned I could heal.
When I was happy, she laughed with me. I fell down so often as a child, it got to be funny; instead of crying, I would burst out laughing. She would come running when she heard the crash and then, when she found me laughing, she would join right in. I learned joy made life more fun. When I was sad, she put her arm around me and assured me things would get better. They always did, so I learned trust. If I made a mistake, she said it was OK. “Everyone makes mistakes,” she said. I learned you don’t have to be perfect.
When I was little and had croup at night, my mother would appear at my bedside and turn on the vaporizer, reassuring me that the coughing would calm down. When it did, I learned my mother was not only comforting, but also smart. Whenever I had a question, she would stop whatever she was doing and try to answer it to my satisfaction. I learned that, if I didn’t know something, it was good to ask questions, and I could get answers
If I was frightened, she would help me resolve my fear. When I was in the fifth grade, I was so afraid of my teacher that I didn’t want to go to school. My mother called the teacher and asked if we three could meet to talk about my fear and find out how to resolve it. It worked. The teacher turned out to be one of my favorites. My mother had taught me that it’s best not to hide from trouble but to face it head on.
When I was very little, I was shy. My mother would always keep me with her when she had friends over or take me when she went to visit friends. She included me in the conversation. I discovered it was easy to talk to people. If you showed interest in them, they showed interest in you. I quickly outgrew my shyness. I learned I loved spending time with other people.
Whenever anybody around had trouble, my mom was the first one at his or her doorstep, offering a helping hand. I remember when one of my mom’s best friends had to leave town to help her parents. She asked my mom to check on her husband and the house while she was away. Everyday mom would go over and check to be sure the husband had food and the house was clean.
The day before her friend was due back in town, mom took me with her to check the house. We arrived to find the husband’s dirty dishes covered with thousands of dead ants. He apparently got up in the morning and found ants on the dishes. So he got out the bug spray and killed them. Mom wasn’t about to leave that mess for her friend to come home to, so we washed up the dishes and cleaned all the counters. My mom always believed in the old saying, “Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you.” I learned the value and the reward of helping others.
The valuable life lessons I learned daily from my mom have helped me every day of my life. I am so grateful I was the girl lucky enough to have the best mom in the world.
[Editorial Note: The fifth grade teacher who Nola initially feared was the highly-regarded Marguerite Montgomery, for whom the Marguerite Montgomery Elementary School would eventually be named.--wdh]
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