April is My Mother’s Birth Month; I Miss Her

April is the birth month of my mother, and I missed her so much. She was gone, six years ago!

My mother was a very ideal woman, very loving and very industrious. She had raised us so well, though we were poor that time. She helped my father earned a living; at the same time,inculcated in us good virtues like love of work, being honest, loving and caring for those in need, and fear of God.

Very Religious Woman

I remembered during that time everyday after dinner, she will tell all of us to gather in front of our small altar at home, and we prayed the Holy Rosary. It was not merely praying, all of us were told to kneel with utmost respect, as we say the prayers.

After the Rosary, we will put the right hand of our father, and then our mother, in our foreheads as if we were asking for their blessings.

Every Sunday, she and my father always go to church to attend the Sunday Mass. Sometimes we were told to come along.

There were so many virtues that our mother showed and taught us. One is living simply within our means. I remembered she did not have to ask our richer relatives to help us, even from her mother, my grandmother, who was at that time have money from our grandfather’s pension as a World War II veteran.

My mother did not ask her mother to give her or to give her some inheritance like a piece of lot where we could had built a house. It was good my father was given a piece of land by his father (my grandfather).

Before she died, my mother lamented that her mother did not give her an inheritance, but it was given only to one of my uncles. But she did not raised that issue to my grandmother until she (grandmother) died.

A Very Industrious Woman

My mother was a very industrious woman. She wakes up at dawn to cook for us as we prepared to go to school. She would always made sure that our school clothes or uniforms were clean and well ironed. She was very neat woman. She did not waste time chatting or gossiping with neighbors. But she was very friendly, even to beggars who passed by our home to ask for food or alms.

Though we were also poor, she always have a caring attitude to other people who are poorer than us. She would give them spare food, sometimes used clothing to help them. Maybe that was her way of thanking God for the blessings for our family.

She Enjoyed Doing Crafts

I remembered my mother who do a lot of crafts during her spare time usually in the afternoon. She would do a lot of embroidery, so almost all of our pillows and blankets have embroidered flowers, usually a gumamela flower, like the avatar I am using for my writing sites now. At times, it would be a flock of ducks, some grasses, along with the flowers. She did all these even without a pattern, she embroidered straight without drawing the outline first.

Before she died, she gave me some of the pillowcases with ducks embroidered on it, and I was thinking of having it framed because it is something very valuable for me. Maybe I will just cut the embroidered portion and have it framed.

Now I realised maybe I inherited that genes, the love for crafting from her. This could be the reason I love to knit or to crochet. For me it is a work of art, just like my mother, whom I considered to be a good artist too. Her canvas was the clothes she embroidered on. She also loved to sew and darn clothes using our manual sewing machine.

At times she would recycle pieces of cloth and have it sewn together in a plastic sack or used sack to make a simple rug. It was so beautiful and colorful because she loved to use happy colors for her works. Her embroidered flowers were usually red, and green for the leaves.

I remembered, I had a big black umbrella which I was using in going to school, especially during rainy days, and she embroidered one panel of it with a red gumamela flower (hibiscus flower). It was bad, we have no camera that time, unlike today, so if I should had the photo of that embroidered umbrella!

Passing on the Good Virtues

These days, when I remember my mother, I always tell my children and my relatives about the nice virtues of my mother. It is through telling them her nice deeds that I want them to follow the good deeds she had done; her good principle in life of living honestly and living within her means.

It is a good virtue; the love of work, and nurturing one’s potentials, using time wisely like doing crafts during spare time. And the most important of it, is the love of God and caring for those in need.

Parents as Good Models

I am proud to say that my father and mother had been good role models for us, their children. Though they were poor, they urged all of us to finish our studies to have a better future ahead of us. We enrolled in public schools, and in college, many of us had scholarships from the government.

Children today are more fortunate. They do not have to walk to school, whether it is raining or the sun is shining hot. Our parents told us that education is the only inheritance they could give us. (Though they gave small lots to have our respected houses built).

And the most important inheritance they gave us were the good deeds, the good example they had shown us. They had no enemies, but so many friends. Until now, when we meet some of their acquaintances during that time, they had nothing but beautiful memories they had about my parents.

I am so happy to hear such good words about my mother, and also about my father, who were good role models when they were still alive.