Wind Beneath Our Wings
February 16, 2020
Here are the words I wrote for my mom's Celebration of Life and a slideshow we played.
From the earliest age Mom realized that life isn’t fair, it was hard and there would be struggles. But she didn’t let that dim her light or use it as an excuse to feel sorry for herself and give up. She lived life with grace and gratitude. She considered life a gift and did her best every day to make the most of it, not just for herself but for all those around her.
For Mom family was first, family was everything! She was a single mom raising 3 children on her own, but she had villages to help her, and as a member of those villages she helped in the raising of so many other children as well. She had a huge influence on the lives of our many cousins, and on the children of friends in our neighbourhood “Jane and Finch”, which has a reputation for being a unsafe place to grow up. Yet nothing could have been further from the truth when we lived there. Everyone knew their neighbours, neighbours became friends and friends became family.
As we grew and our circle of friends grew, our table grew too to make room for those we would bring home with us. Mom always had an open door policy at her house, anyone and everyone was welcome to stop by for coffee and conversation or to spent the holidays with us if they had no other place to go.
Also as we got older our problems grew in size too, yet Mom never let that faze her, she was the rock that we all leaned on and she was the calm amidst the chaos that often overtook our lives. Mom was old fashioned in many ways but she kept up with the times and kept learning and growing as our family did. Her attitudes towards topics such as mental illness and addiction changed as she learned all she could about these issues in order to support family members that were struggling. She made you feel that no matter what was going on in your life, no matter what you were dealing with, you were going to be OK because you had what it takes, you had the strength to get through and keep carrying on.
When Mom got sick there wasn’t a question in my mind of what I would do or where I was going to be during her journey. I promised Mom I would be there for her and though these last 3 months were incredibly hard, they were also a gift. I feel so privileged to have been able to be there for Mom, to care for her and to share the strength and love she so freely gave to me.
I miss my Mom so much already but I know I and all of us are going to be OK because of the gifts and legacy of love that she left us. Thank you Mom for the strength you gave to me. You will always be the wind beneath my wings.
Love Christy
From the earliest age Mom realized that life isn’t fair, it was hard and there would be struggles. But she didn’t let that dim her light or use it as an excuse to feel sorry for herself and give up. She lived life with grace and gratitude. She considered life a gift and did her best every day to make the most of it, not just for herself but for all those around her.
For Mom family was first, family was everything! She was a single mom raising 3 children on her own, but she had villages to help her, and as a member of those villages she helped in the raising of so many other children as well. She had a huge influence on the lives of our many cousins, and on the children of friends in our neighbourhood “Jane and Finch”, which has a reputation for being a unsafe place to grow up. Yet nothing could have been further from the truth when we lived there. Everyone knew their neighbours, neighbours became friends and friends became family.
As we grew and our circle of friends grew, our table grew too to make room for those we would bring home with us. Mom always had an open door policy at her house, anyone and everyone was welcome to stop by for coffee and conversation or to spent the holidays with us if they had no other place to go.
Also as we got older our problems grew in size too, yet Mom never let that faze her, she was the rock that we all leaned on and she was the calm amidst the chaos that often overtook our lives. Mom was old fashioned in many ways but she kept up with the times and kept learning and growing as our family did. Her attitudes towards topics such as mental illness and addiction changed as she learned all she could about these issues in order to support family members that were struggling. She made you feel that no matter what was going on in your life, no matter what you were dealing with, you were going to be OK because you had what it takes, you had the strength to get through and keep carrying on.
When Mom got sick there wasn’t a question in my mind of what I would do or where I was going to be during her journey. I promised Mom I would be there for her and though these last 3 months were incredibly hard, they were also a gift. I feel so privileged to have been able to be there for Mom, to care for her and to share the strength and love she so freely gave to me.
I miss my Mom so much already but I know I and all of us are going to be OK because of the gifts and legacy of love that she left us. Thank you Mom for the strength you gave to me. You will always be the wind beneath my wings.
Love Christy
