Mom's Helping Other Moms

   I enjoyed Mother's Day weekend more than ever!  And probably more because I have been so interested in the stories of other moms who have made extraordinary contributions to their children's well-being.  If you pay attention to some of the amazing stories, you realize that the power of a mother for good in their children's lives is remarkable and nothing can quite compare to it.  
   On T.V. this week, the movies that I've seen have been about moms.  I saw Forrest Gump again, with Sally Fields playing his mom and having such an influence in his life.  I saw BlindSide, based on a true story, with Sandra Bullock playing a mom, not only to her own children but to a boy who didn't have a chance, were it not for her,  She took him in and it is extraordinary what happened to him. 
   Even on NatGeo Wild, it's Big Cat Week don'tcha know, it's all about mothers.  I saw 'Killer Queen', the story of a lioness who risked her own life to save the lives of her 3 cubs, plus 5 of her sister's cubs.  The pride was invaded by a pair of marauding male lions, who ousted the reigning male.  All of the cubs in the pride were therefore threats to their continued dominance.  So in lion society, they have to be exterminated.  Before this could happen, Manyari leads the 8 cubs away from the pride and they roam until they are able to fend for themselves.  It was an incredible feat in so many ways.  She became the sole provider for these hungry adolescent cubs, a task normally shared by at least 2 or 3 lionesses.  She really went above and beyond, to the point of serious injury and I thought it was so similar to what Mom's will do willingly for their young...

Like this extremely moving example, unfolded by 2 girls on scrapes of paper, telling of the sacrifice their mom made to save their lives:

 And even in my own blogging world - I ended a Mrs. Fields Giveaway on Friday and as I was perusing through some of the comments about what folks had done for their moms, I was truly touched at how so many of us do make the connection about how special our moms' sacrifices are.  After all, like one commercial states, our mom is our very first friend.   You can read some of my favorite comments on my Facebook Page, A Gal Needs. 
   Alas, an incident happened in my own family today which isn't the most sterling of examples on how people look at moms and kids and even Mother's Day.  Apparently, my sister, who has 3 energetic, to say the least, boys of 8, 5 and 3 celebrated Mother's Day at a nice restaraunt for a Mother's Day Brunch buffet.  While there, the boys were behaving boisterously as usual, with my sister trying to settle them down as best as she could. An elderly man told her that her boys were "social disgraces" and "savages" among other things.  It went on from there involving 2 other tables, bringing my sister and 3 other women to tears, and having another man almost get in a physical fight with the elderly man.  He told him he was out of line and should remember that today is not about him but the women that made it possible for us to be here at all.  There ended up being a lot of supporters for her and the boys, but she was shaken up considerably. I told her that she will be laughing about it years from now, when her boys are making great contributions to society.  She really is a good mom!  And I love my nephews!
There are those in our society who weren't so blessed.  I watched 48 hours last night and the story was about Jason Bohn, who killed his girlfriend.  It was a really interesting case because many believe he shouldn't be charged with murder because of what he went through in his childhood.  His mother absolved herself of all responsibility to him when she divorced his father when he was 9.  He lived with his father, who was an alcoholic and into drugs.  He abused Jason terribly.  When Jason would ask to live with her, she wouldn't respond.  Finally when Child Services removed him from the home, she still wouldn't take him and had him put into a group home.  She never went to any of the meetings held on his behalf and generally put him out of her life, all while climbing the social ladder and living in a multi-million dollar home.  He was alone and unsupported for most of his life.  His mother didn't even attend his trial, although she paid for the attorney.  No one did.  

I wonder how different Jason's life would have been had his mom taken some time to just care for him?  I'm not saying that Jason isn't responsible for his own actions.  I think he needs to take responsibility.  But I'm sure some of his actions were done from a place of deep hurt turned into rage at how his mom abandoned him.  

When I look at Mother's Day, I now will also take into account all the Moms who have done incredible things for not only their own offspring, but for their "sisters'" kids when they need a helping hand.
 But most of all, I will always thank my own sweet mom, who gave up so much for me,  my 2 sisters and 1 brother.  And because my understanding has grown since she passed away, I fully believe that I will have the chance to thank her again someday.