Treasured Memories of My Mother

A few years ago, I was asked to give a tribute to my mother in a Relief Society Meeting. Some of these things I’ve already talked about, but following is what I wrote at that time.

My Mother is Great! Following are some of the things she has taught me.

M MEMORIES are important. Our family did things together to build good memories. One thing we did was travel together. Some of the memories were very spiritual because my parents went to see and visit Temples. Some of the memories were fun – seeing beautiful sights and camping with scouts. My mother was always willing to entertain my friends. She had birthday parties for me and other parties, as I grew older. She built many happy memories for me.

O OPPORTUNITITIES await each of us. I was encouraged to participate in all activities that came my way. I was taught to look for opportunities to serve others.

T TALENTS need to be developed. She always taught me to develop my talents. I took violin lessons, dance lessons – tap, ballet, hula and acrobats. I was encouraged to act in plays, sing, and to speak to audiences. My mother didn’t want me growing up being frightened of being in front of other people as she was. I really believed I could do anything I wanted if I just worked at it. She was always there to see my performances.

H HELPING me with challenges was always a top priority. She taught us to help one another. It didn’t matter if we were boys or girls we worked in the house, on the car and in the yard. We helped one another and helped both our mother and father.

E ETERNAL families work together and play together. We did laundry together with an old wringer washer. We hung clothes on the line. We cleaned our rooms and helped keep the house clean. We made candy together. We sang together. We played games together.

R RESPONSIBILITY was given to each of us at an early age. I did housework and fixed dinner before my parents arrived home from work. I did dishes before leaving on dates. I was taught if something is worth doing then it should be done right.

S SERVICE was taught by my mother’s example. She was a teacher in primary. Every week we walked not just a block or two but much farther to primary. My parents served as dance instructors in mutual and they served as stake missionaries. The most unusual time of service was when my mother and I both served at the same time as Relief Society presidents in our own wards, which met in the same building. She has taught me you are never too old to give service.

Our destiny is to become QUEENS for all eternity – forever, and ever and ever! My mother will certainly be a QUEEN FOR ALL ETERNITY.

Persistence Is Important

My mother told me that I should never give up, and I should keep trying until I succeed. I learned that I could apply this in all areas of my life. It doesn’t matter if I’m in school, church, working or at home, I need to aim high.

When I was in high school, algebra seemed especially difficult. I didn’t like the class and couldn’t see any reason why I had to learn it because I was sure it wasn’t anything I’d ever need to know. Many times, I heard, “If it’s worth doing, you should do it right and never give up.” I didn’t dare quit or I would have been a big disappointment to her. I also have never used algebra since I finished the class, but at least I’m not a quitter.

She pushed me in learning to type and encouraged me to try harder, and to type faster. She was determined that by the time I was out of high school I would have office skills so I also enrolled in shorthand and accounting.

I know that no matter what I do, I haveto do it well, and I can never quit. Persistence is important.

Mother Encouraged and Supported Me

As a young child, while living in Orem, I was encouraged to develop my musical talents. My parents enrolled me in private lessons with a violin teacher Mr. Childs. He lived on the other end of town, which was a long ways away from us. Sometimes my parents drove me there and sometimes I rode the bus. I took lessons from him for a couple of years, and then our family moved to Spanish Fork.



There I joined the school orchestra. My parents never missed coming to any of our concerts although I’ve often wondered how they could endure liestening to us, because I thought we sounded awful. As the years passed and I started high school, the quality of the concerts did improve. It was encouraging to look out and see my mother’s face watching me as I prepared to play.

My parents enrolled me in dance classes and encouraged me to participate in school and church functions. Because of their support, I often participate in various activities. I can honestly say that whenever I committed to act in a play, dance, sing a solo or play a violin number my parents were always there watching me.

One Lesson I Learned From My Mom - Cleanliness

My friend Karen has given a challenge for those in our Author's Incognito group to blog every day for the rest of May about 25 Lessons Learned from Mom in honor of Mother's Day. I know I've neglected this blog page for the past month, so this will get me back here writing every day.

I'm not going to list the things my mother has taught me in order of importance, because I haven't had time to list all of them yet. Instead, I'm going to tell about them as I think of them. I usually learn most from watching someone.

As a young child, I remember I could always bring someone home to our house and know it would be clean. My mother kept an immaculate house. Someone once told my father that they thought they could probably eat off the kitchen floor because it was so clean. Every week she mopped and waxed the floor. When we children came home from school many times we would find newspapers spread across the floor. That meant we had to be careful because mom had just finished cleaning the floor.

Besides keeping the house clean, she also taught us to keep it clean. We all had chores we were expected to do daily and Saturday was spent with everyone doing their share.

Everyone helped with the laundry on Saturday, because it wasn't a simple job. The old washing machine was pulled into the kitchen and filled with soap and water. A rinse tub was brought in and filled with hot steaming water. After the clothes were washed and rinsed we put each piece through the wringer into a basket and then took it outside to hang on the lines to dry.

As a child I didn't appreciate all the hard work, but as an adult I've always been grateful for the lessons my mother taught. I learned how to clean house because of the example of my mother.