Mother's Day Tribute to My Mom and ALL MOMS - Reflections from the Past

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Ruth Eleanor Shattuck Eldridge Callahan

 

My sisters 6 weeks old AND 3 months old

Deceased Guy, Mark, Wayne
Alive Me, Billy(in the crib)
Christopher was not born yet.

The familiar scent of fresh print and glossy pictures of Natalie Jacobson and Chet Curtis attending an event at the French-inspired castle Carcassonne built by Lydia Pinkham in 1929 adorn the pages of old in the Boston Magazine. Pages of old mixed with nostalgic memories of old when as a young girl I devoured the pages of my mother’s magazine. Pages that were worn and pages that were dog-eared. However, they were pages that contained writing and photos that informed, entertained, and allowed my mother an escape, if only brief, from her world of raising 6 children basically on her own. A world that contained the reality of a woman who barely had time for herself, yet occasionally would curl up in bed late at night and relax with her companion the Boston Magazine.

The content was not just glamor and certainly not just glitz, but well-written articles that informed its readers about medical issues, political issues, and even issues that allowed my mom to become a more informed person. As a young girl I honestly did not always understand what I was reading, but when my mother was at work as I held the magazine in my hands it allowed me to be with my “rugged cross” - my mom; a parent that was barely home due to the necessity of needing to support her children. A woman who married my father and over the years I witnessed her love and dreams dissipate, yet I also witnessed her strength getting stronger. Strength gained through the many “empty promises” my dad made to her and to his family, yet the “field of empty promises grew with each passing year.” My mom soon became my greatest role model and she instilled within me that same strength like the cross that stands erect on the hill in the George Bennard’s hymn The Old Rugged Cross.

Many tragic losses have since happened within my family. I look at my now elderly mother in awe and wonder how she copes with the loss of two daughters as infants, the loss of my three oldest brothers; one murdered in 1991, one found alone and dead in his apartment in 2004, and one who committed suicide in 2007. How can a person especially a mother endure what my own mom has endured, yet continue to walk forward? This question resonates in my mind when I look over at my ageing mother with admiration and love.

My Maternal Great-Grand-Parents

Mabel and Leroy Grams and Gramps

An admiration that has taught me as her daughter determination. I am blessed to have all my children with me as well as two handsome grandsons. I may have been homeless several times over the years, I may have had to file bankruptcy twice over the years, I may have survived an abusive first marriage, I may have had to live each day frugally due to financial instability, I may have even lost my three oldest brothers and feel their loss and pain each day, but now as the oldest child instead of the middle child living with two younger brothers each day I, like my mother, move forward and through my writing attempt to not only advocate for others, attempt to use my words to let others know they are never alone. Though at times I felt so alone as a little girl; I was at least comforted falling asleep waiting for my mother to arrive home from work clinging to the images and the words within the dog-eared pages of my mom’s Boston Magazine.

The Future