As I rose this morning before 5am to get started with my day, it dawned on me. Good mothers deserve the world!  A “little” Mother’s Day Brunch that started out with about a dozen people has now morphed into more than 35. A menu that, at first, was a simple mixture of a few, inexpensive breakfast and lunch items has now transformed into so much that I’m truly concerned about where it all will fit.  Fueled by my sister’s constant chiming in of “we need more”, we’ve remixed menus, sacrificed time and money, brought in loved ones to help host and contribute so that every mother present will feel loved. Why? Because every mother deserves that, and so much more.

I think back over my 41 years of living and how everyday of my life, my mother has always been the epitome of “above and beyond”. A former teacher for more than three decades, who would buy children clothes, get involved in their personal lives to help them, even host parties at our house for them, she carried that same love and sign of sacrifice into the lives of her family even more. Late nights and early mornings, being a doctor, a counselor, a personal chef, a personal banker sharing funds too many to count, a mediator, being the best gift giver, sitting on the floor at age 66 playing games with her grandkids, bringing others in her home and under her wings to show them real love, making everyone feel special, never forgetting to send holiday cards, caring and providing for her elders, loving her husband and serving God are just a few of the things that amaze me about her.

I sometimes get angry with her when I felt like she is doing too much. The bags under her eyes from tears or tiredness, sometimes being mistreated by those she helped and cared for the most, seeing her walk with a limp, or knowing she was going without so she could give would make me want to yell, “just stop it!!!!!” I’m a 70’s baby, and by far no fool, so I never did yell anything out of my mouth, but always wondered why she did so much.

My sister and I were talking last night after spending much of the day cooking, and my phone rang just shy of 10pm. It was my almost 80 year-old Great Aunt from Montgomery calling to see what she “should bring” to the brunch. My polite answer to her was “nothing”. And in that instant, God’s answer to me about why my mother does so much was made clear. She gets it honestly!

Good mothers come from good mothers, and good others. They simply can’t help it. I can see now how the “do too much” that my mother mastered was an undeniable, transfer from grandmother and my grandmother’s sisters to my mother and mother’s sisters, and from other amazing family members who were good mothers. They all specialized in Above and Beyond 401. I can see now how my mother has also strategically aligned all of her associations with other mothers who will go to the ends of the earth and back for those they love and dare anyone to question their actions or try to negatively influence their reactions. They’re good mothers and simply can’t help it!

So today, I salute mothers everywhere and pay homage to their hustle. I’m not talking hustle in the street sense, but the hustle that doesn’t let them stop until every possible prayer can be prayed, every possible solution considered, every resource used, and every hour of the day spent as it was meant, then will let them emerge as if whatever just happened didn’t have any effect on them at all. Now that’s a good mother!

-Angela Moore

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