Day of Thanksgiving- Day 11- Mom

Today (and every day) I'm eternally grateful for my mother. She is awesome! My dad died when I was a senior in high school and she resolutely shipped me off to college 8 months later. When I came home with friends, she welcomed them. When I wanted to work for a company in Chicago for a summer, she bought my plane ticket.

She has guided me through raising three children and stood at my side during my divorce. She took care of my aging grandmothers, first her mother-in-law and then her mother. Right after my brother's accident, she nursed two invalids for 7 or 8 months without complaint. She is probably the finest person I know.

I was so happy for her when she married Frank (my stepfather) 12 years ago. He treats her like a princess- no less than she deserves. Of course, she takes great care of him, too.

She has paid my bills when the money was short. She makes sure the kids have new clothes every now and then. She loves the idea of Savannah and I traveling to Italy this spring, so much that she has paid for the trip.

Today, she did two amazing things. One, she sent me her housekeeper. (It is a long story, but she has two houses in two different towns. When she hasn't been at the house here, and it doesn't need cleaning, I get the housekeeper!) Considering that I'm having a Thirty-One party tomorrow night, I really needed help. She offered the housekeeper even though she could have used her this week. The second amazing thing she did was loan the boys' grandmother (their mother's  mother) money. Belle is a sweet, wonderful lady who has just been diagnosed with Lyme's disease. She is out of work and has a mound of bills and didn't know where to turn. And to top it off, she is going to let the boys do some work for her to "work it off" for their grandmother as a surprise Christmas present.

I love my mother, and I'm totally thankful for her!