Work

Saturday, December 22 - Christmas shopping is at an all time frenzy in our small town.  Maybe the economy is turning around!  My Mom has been "retired" from her long time factory employer for some time now.  Since then, she has done a couple of different jobs including working at my Sister's Floral shop and for a couple of months as a secretary.  For the past five years or so however my Mom has supplemented her income by working part time for Unified Services.  This is a business that is supported by the Missouri Association of Sheltered Workshops.  The business employes the handicapped individuals from our community that might not find a job anywhere else.  The business is supported by donations from the community and has recently started stocking "new" items that are purchased in bulk from warehouses that are overstocked.  Each day the supervisor from the workshop brings out a van of handicapped individuals to sort donations, stock shelves, vacuum floors, etc...  These people really enjoy their work and the fact that they are able to really earn money for themselves.  My mom is the part-time cashier and helps to direct the employees while they sack for her or as they stock the shelves. 

Throughout my life-time my Mom has never, and I mean NEVER, missed work.  She has always been one of those people that is there every day no matter what.  As children, when my sister and I were sick (which was rarely) we stayed with my Grandparents.  I remember Grandma and Grandpa buying us cozy pajamas when we both had the mumps.  Grandma and Grandpa being there to remind us not to scratch when we had chicken-pox.  It was Grandma that rushed me to the emergency room when I had to have my appendix taken out.  And, it was Grandma who checked me in to the hospital when the doctors took out my tonsils.  Mom has always said "if I don't work, I don't get paid".  This has always been crystal clear to me.  My sister and I have never really wanted for anything despite my Mom raising us as a single mother.  We never needed handouts, we were never on welfare or food stamps.  We just accepted that my Mom had to work.  My sister and I were those kids that are in school every day, sick or not, and didn't leave school for anything until my Grandad (who drove our school bus) took us home.  We were the first ones on the bus and the last ones off of the bus.  When we got home there were chores that needed to be finished up before my mom got home from work.  Every day for my entire life my mom would magically appear at 5:30 just like clock-work.  Now looking back on this I don't know how she did it.  As a mother of two girls myself who has a husband that helps to provide when I think back on my youth what my Mother did for us and just how she managed to do it amazes me.

When my sister and I got older, we would often ask Mom why she had never remarried.  Wouldn't she like to meet someone, and as teenagers we tried to imagine what it would be like to have a man in our house.  My Mom wouldn't hear of it.  "Where would I meet someone around here?" she would say, ..."at a bar?, that is someone I wouldn't want to meet...."  Mom has always told us that she married the man of her life, (our Father), and that no one could ever take his place.  And, that was the end of that, we have never even seen my Mom with another man.

My Mom's work ethic is unbelievable.  I will admit at times I have resented it.  She will not take off work; therefore, all of life's special events better not happen on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, because those are the days that my Mom works.  If for some reason something happens on those days, we just accept the fact that my Mom will not be there.  She has missed four state track meets where my daughter competed and earned her spot on the podium, she has missed Grandparent's day at school, school parties, etc...all of those little events that have the nerve to be scheduled at the end of the week.  My sister and I understand that Mom will be at every one of  her grandchildren s' important life events - as long as those events do not happen on Thurs., Fri., or Saturday.  We have always accepted this.

Since her diagnosis with inflammatory breast cancer, nothing in my Mom's insistence to work has really changed.  As she sat in the doctor's office hearing the news for the first time (Tuesday); her main concern seemed to be that the doctor was telling her she needed to be at the hospital early Friday morning for the implant of the porta-cast and that she should plan on the testing in the hospital to last at least two days.  She tried to put it off until Monday, but the oncologist insisted that this was life-threatening and must be done Friday, the day following Thanksgiving.  Mom hesitantly called in and told her boss that she wouldn't be in on Friday and Saturday.  I know that not only was this news a shock to her boss, but then Mom told her why it was necessary to miss...I'm sure the poor woman must have sat there with her mouth wide open.

Mom had agreed months prior to her diagnosis to take off of work on Friday, December 14, for my nieces graduation from Missouri University.  After all, Meghan wasn't just graduating, she was graduating with Honors from MU's School of Business.  The University of Missouri School of Business is one of the finest and by far most competitive programs in the state of Missouri.  Meghan had been chosen to give the speech for the students of the School of Business and she had ten front row seats in the auditorium for her family.  Mom had arranged to switch with another employee; a Friday for a Monday, where she could make up her lost day at work.  My sister and Meghan were very understanding after Mom's diagnosis, they knew that she might not feel like making the four hour one-way trip to the University campus for the graduation.  Thank God that my Mom did make it.  This will be a memory that our family will always cherish, and it would not have been the same without my Mom.  Sure enough in spite of losing her hair over the weekend, there was my Mom promptly at 8:30AM the following Monday there to open the doors.

This Saturday, December 22, was the busiest day the my Mom has ever seen at the Nifty Thrifty.  She worked at the register non-stop from 9AM to 6PM with people waiting patiently in line to be the next to check-out with their Christmas treasures. No one would have suspected that she has Cancer. Mom dealt with the grumpy customers, the customers who wanted to haggle over a dollar item that had been donated by someone else, and those who were also determined to spread Christmas cheer; and all with a smile, and a thank-you and have a Merry Christmas.  I dropped by after doing some Christmas shopping of my own and stood aside; trying to stay out of the way, explaining that I was not in line, all the while watching my Mom in amazement.  Just as I have done throughout my lifetime. 

I called her later that night and worried at 6:30PM when she didn't answer her phone.  She had time to make the twenty-minute drive home.  Where could she be?  Finally, I called her prepaid cell phone when she wasn't in the house by 7:15 fearing that something had gone wrong.  She had just pulled in her drive, and was parking her car.  Mom had stopped at the local Wal-mart finishing up some last minute shopping and was picking up groceries for our Christmas dinner.  She said that she was so tired she felt like she could hardly drag herself through the door.  No wonder, working nine hours non-stop, shopping, carrying her groceries in to the house (several trips) then putting everything away.  Once again my Mom's tenacity will never fail to amaze me.  As my husband likes to say, "Your Mom is like a machine!".  Yes, maybe she is, but she is so much more!

Thank you, Mom, for everything!