My mother was born on December 4, 1910. One of thirteen children herself when she was growing up, she had eight children of her own. She always wore an apron, and when my father died at forty-six, my mother and her apron became a symbol to all of us of her hard work ethic and her unwavering dedication to providing a love-filled life for the seven young children she was left to raise alone.

Prior to my father’s death, my parents owned a restaurant. Without him, though, the business was too hard for her to run alone, so my mother sold it and for the next thirty years, she supported the family working as a waitress.

In her lifetime she experienced many hardships but through them all, she always maintained an extreme passion for being a caring, loving, compassionate and generous child of God. She raised her children on the last words that Jesus Christ uttered which were, ” Forgive them for they know not what they do.” Not only were we to forgive our adversaries, but my mother insisted that as her children we were to take our forgiveness to the next level and earnestly pray for them so that they may have good lives. This was a hard lesson but proved to be very rewarding in our lives.

My mother is very special to all of her children, and to the extended family she has created outside of her next of kin. She has reached out to every gamut of mankind from the very rich to the extremely poor and downtrodden of society, such as the hardened criminal offenders in prisons. She has proven to be a role model for all to emulate. She truly loves unconditionally and is the spiritual light that guides all who love and cherish her.

When I was forty years old, I told my mother that I wanted to be just like her, and to honor and celebrate God’s beautiful creation of life, and her reply to me at the age of eighty-six was, “I have so much further to go.” I can only hope to provide such wisdom and love to my children.

"I will never cut the apron strings of my mother." ~ David Casias

Text © EllynAnne Geisel

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