This seems to be the culture of majority of mothers.
Going to bed last, serving everyone and having food last, buying gifts and in this particular case for some mothers like mine who only get by/ manage through everything, they’ll rarely get something for themselves and more often than not they’ll get no goodies for themselves. The bonus now remains on the people in their lives to notice when a mother is giving everything and seldom receiving.
My mother is this kind of mother. She has taken the cloth off of her back so many times for us. She has breastfed my youngest brother when she had not eaten anything but had oral rehydration solution from the hospital where she had spent four months attending to my baby brother whose conditions were yet to be diagnosed. She has sat at the back of a carbin truck to get my brother to hospital when he was involved in an accident and because there was no money in that moment of emergency and this was the only way to get to the national referral hospital close to 600km away, she hopped on. I can go on and on with the things that she has done and what she has given for my siblings and I and other people but let me just mention these.
I am ashamed to say, throughout our lives, she has celebrated birthdays for the young ones especially (I’ve celebrated my birthday once at home probably because my elder brother and I have been in boarding school most of our school time until we finished school and carried on living away. Two years ago, I felt strongly compelled to celebrate this queen and so I shared with my brother. For some reason, many things came up and we didn’t follow through with this plan. We didn’t take it very seriously to make a concrete practical plan.
This year, I am so determined to celebrate this my shero, my queen, my constant love, my guardian angel. Tomorrow I get onto that bus in anticipation for Tuesday when my sweet mother turns 53. I have to her that we are going to celebrate her birthday this year. She picked out where we shall go for a meal with our dad (step dad), my three little brothers and two small cousins . She does not know that I have held out for a mouthwatering chocolate and fruitcake which I’ll take home with me. I also hope to get a good photographer to do a portrait or even a mini photoshoot for us.
I am anticipating this because of what it means to me and what I hope it will mean to her; that she is loved, appreciated so much. I nticipate joy and love in every air partical surrounding us on that day. I now have an active commitment to myself to shower my mother with all the love I possibly can and to make her so proud she will see that I am becoming more than who she dreamed for me. While I am at it, I want to utilize every opportunity there is to give her so many flowers.
Wish me luck for a beautiful and colorful day on Tuesday 21st Sept 2021.
Mother dear. 