I was talking to my mom and she shared a story about a young man who said he never knew what a mother’s love was until he experienced my mother’s love. My mom said she didn’t do anything special, she was just being available.
My mom has always been a mom and done mom things and I used to think all moms did the things my mom does because that’s what moms do. In high school, I started realizing this wasn’t always true. Not every kid was sent to school with a packed lunch they didn’t have to make or sent with money they didn’t have to work for. Not every kid was allowed to have friends over all the time and not every kid had an extra stocked pantry so those friends who were always over never left hungry. Not every kid had a mom, only a dad — some trying their best to be both. Not every kid had a dad and only a mom — some of them not trying to be either.
I’d like to think every friend group has moms who are moms to everyone in the friend group. I know some of my friends’ moms were moms to me and I loved having a mother’s love in multiple homes — cause it meant I would always be fed and being fed was a high priority for every high schooler.
My mom was definitely a mom to many. A lot of my friends even called my mom, mom. And she did her best and was great at being a mom to the friend group.
She let us set up multiple TVs all over the house so we could connect multiple Xboxes and play Halo 2 till three AM even though she would have to get up early the next day — for either work or to make breakfast for the dozen kids who passed out at the house. She let us invite our friends who needed a place to spend holidays with and she didn’t care that it would mean she would have to cook extra food. She made sure they not only had a place to be but a place they were welcomed.
She put up with our bullshit, like when we were smoking hookah at the house and her and my dad came home early. We put our friend in the pantry with the hookah and tried to play it off like nothing was going on. And she immediately asked who’s in the pantry. She knew we were hiding someone and something, and I’m sure she knew before then what we were up to. Because I think moms always know.
My mom is a mom to her kids’ worlds because to my mom, us kids are her world. I haven’t always been the most grateful, especially when I was a teenager, and even in my twenties. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve tried to be more reflective on lived life. I’ve been able to be thankful for the love that was and still is — my mother’s love is a constant. I think my mom might say she didn’t do anything special, she was just being available. But I think being available is special. It was special when you were made yourself available to feed our friends, available to house them on holidays, available to put up with us when we up to no good, and it was special when you made yourself available to a young man who never knew a mother’s love.
And you still are available. Always.
Even when you work two jobs and your 30-year-old son calls you in the middle of the day or late at night, I never get your voicemail.
Being available is a special form of love.
Website: justjoshperez.com
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i really love this, josh! thanks for sharing.