To All,
I may not be at the scripting class tonight, but decided to share with
you a story and also the meaning of this day for all those with mothers they
loved.
Bruce
In Remembrance Of Mom
I received a phone call around 10AM EST on January 27 2004. At this time
I was feeling no pain and at total peace and I had no reason I thought that
I would have such peace and a feeling of calm. It was like "Green Pastures
Resting Next To Still Waters," until the phone call explained why. At the
same time in Britain my younger brother Scott was approached by a co-worker
to call home to mom, he to did not know why until he later received a phone
call. The co-worker did not know why either, the words just came out of his
mouth.
This morning a very dear friend, LOVED, precious woman had passed on to
our Lord, she was our mom.
her family life started in 1945 when she was on a train to California to
meet someone in San Diego. While on the train she, mom, Betty was heading
back to the diner car to get a sandwich or something to eat while on this 2
day trip when she noticed an open seat sitting next to a man all alone. He,
dad, Owen noticed her as well when she walked by and he got up and followed
Betty. Owen was also heading to California to complete his training in the
Air Force at March Air Force base.
They got talking and she did not want to sit with an old man so they
moved her luggage up to where he was sitting. They then sat down together
and spent the next 48 hours talking about there lives. She lived in Columbus
Ohio and he lived in Interlaken New York. her family worked at the Ball
factory just down the road and he help his parents ran a grocery store for a
farm town resting and formed around the railroad that sliced through the
center of the Fingerlakes. Both settings made what was one of the signatures
of middle America, farmers growing fruits and vetgitables others making
storage jars to preserve and store what had been grown.
Owen kept in contact with Betty and eventually brought her home to
Interlaken to introduce her to his family and town. They got engaged on the
July 4'th weekend of 1945 and were married on July 27 that year. There was
only 11 months difference in their ages.
Several years later I came into this world one day after their wedding
anniversary in 1952 and I was the fourth of six kids and there would have
been seven, but the Lord took one before birth, so mom raised 6 kids, 3 boys
and 3 girls while working at the Willard State hospital laundry, which did
the laundry brought in from all over the state at that time. Dad tried to
run the grocery store, but people charging and never paying bills and the
center of commerce moving to Ithaca, he had to close down the store and
become a school bus driver, maintenance man and night watchman at Cornell.
But Dad eventually went back to Cortland State college for teaching and got
a degree and taught for 10 years at the South Seneca schools.
Both were devoted to family and us kids. We were always taken to the
lake each summer to swim. Nights or weekends me and my brother would go to
the theater and sit and watch the weekend afternoon movies while dad was at
work at Cornell.
When mom accepted the proposal she was promised by dad that he would say
I love you every day and he did. She reminded us during hard times that is
all she asked of him and he fulfilled the promise. She left us this year on
January 27 to be with the Lord, my older brother Bryan was hugging her when
she took her last breath. Dad was still asleep, since it was around 4:30 in
the morning. At age 83 her heart decided to finally rest and give her
eternal peace. A story of love as it was meant to be by God for a man and a
woman when becoming husband and wife to raise a family.
This is my honor and remembrance of her life:
Mothers, Mine Especially
The young mother set her foot on the path of life. "Is this the long
way?" she asked.
And the guide said: "Yes, and the way is hard. And you will be old
before you reach the end of it. But the end will be better than the
beginning."
But the young mother was happy, and she would not believe that
anything
could be better than these years. So she played with her children, and
gathered flowers for them along the way, and bathed them in the clear
streams; and the sun shone on them, and the young Mother
cried, "Nothing
will ever be lovelier than this."
Then the night came, and the storm, and the path was dark, and the
children shook with fear and cold, and the mother drew them close and
covered them with her mantle, and the children said, "Mother, we are
not
afraid, for you are near, and no harm can come."
And the morning came, and there was a hill ahead, and the children
climbed and grew weary, and the mother was weary. But at all times
she
said to the children, "A little patience and we are there." So the
children climbed and when they reached the top, they said, "Mother, we
would not have done it without you." And the mother, when she lay down
at night looked up at the stars and said, "This is a better day than
the
last, for my children have learned fortitude in the face of hardness.
Yesterday I gave them courage. Today, I have given them strength."
And with the next day came strange clouds which darkened the earth,
clouds of war and hate and evil, and the children groped and stumbled,
and the mother said: "Look up. Lift your eyes to the light." And the
children looked and saw above the clouds an everlasting glory, and it
guided them beyond the darkness. And that night the Mother said, "This
is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God." And the
days
went on, and the weeks and the months and the years, and the mother
grew
old and she was little and bent. But her children were tall and
strong,
and walked with courage. And when the way was rough, they lifted her,
for she was as light as a feather; and at last they came to a hill,
and
beyond they could see a shining road and golden gates flung wide. And
mother said: "I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know the
end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and
their children after them."
And the children said, "You will always walk with us, Mother, even
when
you have gone through the gates." And they stood and watched her as
she
went on alone, and the gates closed after her. And they said: "We
cannot
see her, but she is with us still. A Mother like ours is more than a
memory. She is a living presence."
Your Mother is always with you. She's the whisper of the leaves as you
walk down the street, she's the smell of bleach in your freshly
laundered socks she's the cool hand on your brow when you're not
well.
Your Mother lives inside your laughter. And she's crystallized in
every
tear drop. She's the place you came from, your first home; and she's
the map you follow with every step you take. She's your first love and
your first heartbreak, and nothing on earth can separate you.. Not
time,
not space...not even death!
My Dear mom walks with Angels wins along side our glory in heaven with
eternal peace and love,
God Bless You Mom!
Betty Bryan Babcock May You Live In Peace For Ever!
Now resting just across the road of the California March Air Force base
her love, my dad, was heading to when they first met on that fateful day
on the way to California in 1945.
Sincerely
Bruce and his fateful guide dog Bronx
