Dear John Michael,

What great pleasure I take in having been your mother….”that’s my momma” I’ve heard you say so many times.  Reminiscing last night brought some of my most favorite “momma duties” to mind.   Moving to Colorado the summer you turned five and immediately joining the “Summer Movie Club” –  we would sneak in our own candy, but buy the popcorn there…it was the summer of Pippy Longstocking – everyone came dressed as a character from the movie.  I also enrolled you in a summer camp that you attended for two weeks:  you milked cows, gathered veggies from the garden, and on the last day rode horses – your know-it-all mother said she had experience with horses so you got the most spirited horse – and, off you were bucked!  Den mom……we moved to Wyomissing and signed up for Boy Scouts; no one would volunteer to be the leader so I became the Den mom, with lots of other moms helping me – thank goodness, as I am not the most creative person – Thank you especially, Kathy Everline.  My most fave moment as Den Mom has to be going to Summer Camp.  Dad was supposed to go, but had a “bigwig” from Walmart coming so I took you boys to Hawk Mountain Boy Scout Camp, where the first activity was to go on a scavenger hunt.  I still have the list that included:  mosquito eyeball, salamander, and a hemlock cone (was I wearing a skirt???).  I later became the 4-H Leader while in Paducah, Kentucky – your group did win a community service award (and, when we stuffed stockings for the underprivileged, I stuffed my camera in one – and, never found it).  The next six years I would serve as either a team mom or “equipment hauler” for soccer, ice hockey, and golf – great times going to golf camp at Hampton Cove, Alabama….or ice hockey camp in Minnesota (where we just thought we “knew” ice hockey).  Teaching at Lincoln Co High School while you attended was great – field trips with your AP history class, Model UN…..and, truly great memories on the church youth trips.  But, perhaps, what really comes to mind is when I followed you into the boys’ locker room after you had been suspended from an ice hockey game for protecting your goalie…..oops, or was it when the one time Dad couldn’t make a game in Birmingham – your first game after being out from dislocating your shoulder.  Not quite ready to be back on the ice, Dad had showed me how to “duct tape” your shoulder and arm so you wouldn’t move it much – now, that was not only a sight watching me do that — but, watching you play!  You were great!

If I could just have one more day to hear you laugh – last night, I began thinking of how much you loved to laugh at your momma…….when I danced, when I took my fall off the ski lift, you taking my ski poles away from me as I was coming down the mountain at Jackson Hole…or walking down the mountain when I tried snowboarding….spilling my food, singing with Dusty or Sara Jane….and, did I say dancing?

My sweet son, I miss you!  Thank you for giving me so many wonderful memories for Mother’s Day.  I love you,

Your momma

 You made this flower corsage for me Mother’s Day 1992; I just don’t remember whether it was in Sunday School or your 2nd grade class.

The Flower