The seen and unseen gifts of mothers

Paul Gaudette Managing Editor

I didn’t realize it until just this week, but this month marks the 20th anniversary of my graduation from Dublin High School.

Wyndi and I were clearing out desk drawers and happened upon a trove of old photographs including several of me and friends decked out in kelly green caps and gowns, ready to spend all night in the gym claiming tickets for the project graduation auction to happen before dawn.

(I gathered enough to get a CD player for my car. Before you get too jealous, I could never figure out how to install it properly.)

Considering I stayed up a full 24 hours, I remember only bits and pieces of the event- burning a CD for the graduation slideshow and slipping in Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2” (“We don’t need no education.” A weird favorite for someone who would become an English major), posing for countless photos, chatting with classmates about plans and consoling my mom, who has never been good at hiding her feelings.

As we approach another graduation for Dublin High School, I’ve been able to observe some of my former classmates with kids of their own about to walk across the stage.

I’ve written about the sacrifice my parents made in raising me, but as I’ve connected with friends raising kids through the teenage years, I realize that the sacrifices of a parent go far beyond what mere words can say.

Being a mother or father is a full-time job, but as a parent, you’re expected to be your own person and more. Your life with all its obligations still goes on, but there will always be school events, sick days, meals, game nights and much more you need to provide for the child you’re raising.

This can mean getting up before 5 a.m. to make sure they get to practice. (I only had to help a friend with this for a few days; I can’t imagine a whole season.)

It can mean making an impromptu trip to the school to bring a forgotten item or pick up a sick kid.

All the while, both your lives go on, and you feel responsibility for both of them.

As I’ve observed just how exhausting all this can be, I think of my own mom who took a teaching job to help pay my tuition in a private school because my parents wanted to provide the best. (That job would see her working overtime many nights but she always was on hand to help me with homework.)

I can thank her for my love of literacy because she read to me almost every night and when I was old enough to get reading assignments, she always acted delighted to hear me read passages of “Charlotte’s Web” or “Black Beauty.” (It had to be an act. Who wants to listen to a kid sniffle through “Charlotte’s Web?”)

To this day, she shares my interests no matter how nerdy and has always made me believe that it matters as long as it matters to me.

She put up with an insane variety of pets from hamsters to lizards to frogs and even helped take care of them when I went out of town or stayed at a friend’s house.

She put up with the hormones that turn all of melodramatic know-it-alls during our teenage years.

She provided meals every night, whether bought or prepared. She paid attention to whatever stupid toy was at the top of my Christmas list including farting “Ren & Stimpy” dolls.

She did all of this while being her own person- a woman whose love of literature started long before mine, a woman who has a wicked sense of humor and loves a scary movie, a woman who dedicated years of her life to education at both schools and churches, and a woman who was always willing to put herself last if it meant better things for others or a better life for her son.

Happy Mother’s Day to my mom and all the mothers who give so much of themselves for their children.

Paul Gaudette is the managing editor at the Dublin Citizen and can be reached at 445-2515 and publisher@dublincitizen.com.