When love makes sacrifice a pleasure

We make a lot of sacrifices in life but often we do it with reluctance and grudgingly as they cause us a great deal of hardship and inconvenience to us. There is only one person in the world who enjoys sacrificing her time and energy because it is done for the real love for the other person. Undeniably it is none other than our own mother.

It has taken me 50 long years to really appreciate all the sacrifices that my mother has done and is continuing to do for me. When I was young I took her for granted. Only now that I am a wife and mother of three for twenty three years I am beginning to truly appreciate the fine qualities of the love and affection my mother had for me and my siblings.

There were seven children in the family and it was a real wonder how she could take care of all of us equally well although being the weakest I did get some special privileges as far as food was concerned.

She hardly had any formal education but she was a wizard in all fields as a mother, wife and a true friend to those in need. It was her charitable deeds to the less fortunate that taught me to be compassionate to fellow humans.

She was a fantastic cook and in those days cooking was a real chore without all the modern gadgets. Everything from grinding to cutting was done manually and you can imagine cooking for an extended family of 13 people daily without fail. She had a way to make this chore exciting by making it into an exciting family event where we all participated in cooking and preparation of the meals during weekends.

She was also an efficient “transport minister”, transporting each and every one of us to and from school and other activities. There was hardly a day when she neither sends us late to school nor was late to pick us up after school. I understand now how difficult this job of transporting children is today as I have to do that for my 3 children several times a day without fail.

Everything she did was with passion and near perfection, washing and ironing of clothes, cleaning the house and even dressing. I wish I could be half of that. Mom was a fantastic teacher too, devising ingenious ways to teach me mathematics especially fractions, which even my school teachers found it difficult.

She was instrumental in instilling the love for music in me and she herself was a fantastic singer. Apart from being a great mother to us she was an exemplary wife especially in those days when men were very demanding. If not for her my father would have been a total wreck.

Till this day, at the age of 83 he is totally dependent on her. I cannot imagine what would happen to him if the good Lord takes her away from him.

The only defect in her, if you consider it as one, is her nagging. This again is because she finds us not up to her standard, which is so high that I don’t think we can ever keep up.

The sad thing is today not many of her sacrifices are not appreciated by us, the children, which really hurts her to the core. Many of us simply forget the good old days when she toiled endlessly without sleep and rest for our well being, to make us what we are today.

We are too busy with our own lives that we forget to spend time just talking and listening to her. At the age of 75 and riddled with so many ailments, the least we can give her is reassurance that we care and love her.

To a mother there is nothing more comforting than to see her children in good health and happiness. As a daughter if I can convince her that she was the source and inspiration for my success and happiness in life, she would be the happiest mother today.

JMC
Penang