Madison522web

TheTime COIN
Camille Anding
We have a tendency to relate months of the year
with special or sad memories. Birthdays, anniversaries
and deaths make indelible marks on months for all of us.
May has a lot of special, celebratory marks for most people. The April showers do bring
May flowers, and that makes me very happy! The extreme heat and humidity of our South
aren’t totally cranked up, and the flowers take advantage of it.
My own flowers that I plant and stoke Miracle Grow to begin to “flaunt their wares” and
spread their beauty during the spring growing season of May. The roses are temporarily free of
the humidity-induced diseases, and the deer aren’t hungry enough to invade our back yard.
I tend to associate May with awards days, graduations and clean-out-desks-and-lockers
month. It meant the light at the end of the tunnel for me when I taught school, and as a student,
it meant summer paradise was next.
Mother’s Day falls in the month of May and continues to make this month special. There
have been times that I’ve felt like the memorial date tries to press us into a commercial mode,
but there’s no denying that mothers need a special recognition day.
It was during my childhood, but I still remember the excitement of Daddy carrying us to
Van-Atkins Department store in New Albany to buy Mother a gift for the big day. I always went
to the jewelry counter and picked out a new pair of earrings - blue ones - her favorite color.
That was long ago. I still miss Mother and think of her several times a day. Little did I realize
what an impression she was making in my life. I press blouses the way she taught me, I add
extra butter to recipes like she taught me, I love jonquils the way she loved them, I remind
myself to write thank-you notes the way she did, I enjoy family members singing like she did,
I appreciate the stage like she did, I pray for VBS like she did, I teach Sunday school like she
did, I soothe little grandchildren’s boo-boos like she did, I TRY to make apple pies like she did,
and I try to love my family like she did.
So many visit the cemetery on Mother’s Day because that’s as close as they feel they can be.
I just carry her memory with me and thank God for her influence in my life and look forward
to our reunion day. Who knows what month will hold that special event?
58 • MAY 2022