http://ozarkspub.vo.llnwd.net/o37/KSMU/audio/mp3/springfield-residents-reflect-mother039s-greatest-acts_12871.mp3
Mother’s Day is Sunday. Once again this year, we asked several Springfield residents – including some of our own staff members here at KSMU – one question: What’s the greatest thing your mother ever did for you? Here’s a collection of their answers.
(Click on the above MP3 link to hear the audio file)
Julia, age 8: “The best thing my mom did for me is she loves and cares for me."
Barb McMeekin, KSMU: “The greatest thing my mom ever did was love me without reservation. And she never failed to tell me how proud she was of me, and everything I did."
Sarah, 26: “The best thing my mother ever did for me was stay up to study with me all night for a Hebrew test.”
Wilson, 6: “The best thing my mom ever did for me is bring me two new gerbils.”Brandon Goodwin, KSMU: “The greatest thing my mom ever did for me was make me feel like I could do absolutely anything in the entire world.”
Jamie Miller, KSMU: “The greatest thing my mother ever gave me was my upside-down smile. It is something that I see when I look at her, and at pictures of my grandmother. It embodies the sweetness of life and the serious side, and I really do feel strong as a woman when I see my own smile.”
Lily, 7: “The best thing my mom has ever done for me is bought me my own dog.”
Missy Shelton, KSMU: “The greatest thing my mom taught me was to have gumption. I grew up in northeast Tennessee in a smaller town called Kingsport. She always wanted us kids to have the get-up-and-go that she, I think, wished that she had had. And she always encouraged us to think beyond the Appalachian Mountains where we grew up, and to have a global view of things. And that’s been very, very valuable to me in my life, and in the lives of my siblings as well.”
Mike Smith, KSMU: “The greatest thing my mother ever did for me was to ensure that when I grew up, I would be a non-smoker. In 1960, the year I would turn seven, the adults in my family and the friends of my mom and dad, everybody smoked. I grew up in a mining family, a mining culture—rough and rowdy, and a lot of smokers. And I wanted to smoke also. So, I said to my mother, ‘Hey, let me do that, too. That looks like a lot of fun,’ or something like that, I’m sure. And she said, ‘Why, sure! But you have to do it just like us. So, when I give this to you, you take a big, deep breath. Take it into your lungs.’ [I said] ‘Well, sure, I’ll be glad to do that.’ Well anyway, of course it made me sicker than a dog. And from that day on, I never wanted another cigarette. I miss my mother very, very much. She passed away in 1997 of lung cancer.”
Jennifer Moore, KSMU: “The greatest thing my mom ever did for me is to sacrifice her time, her career, and I’m guessing a big chunk of her social life so that she could dedicate everything to raising her five children. And also for flying to the other side of the world when I needed her.”
Charles Glass, born in 1920: “I was raised up in the great depression. She baked homemade bread all the time, raised us kids up on the farm, worked in the garden, cooked, the whole nine yards.”
Ya-ya, 9: “The best thing my mom has ever done for me is to adopt me from China.”
Ansel, 11: “The best thing my mom ever did for me is, when I was five or six years old, she took me to Worlds of Fun for about five or six hours. And another time, she let me get this game that I’d been wanting for a really long time.”
Jessica Gray, KSMU: “ The greatest thing my mom has ever done for me was to be supportive of me, regardless of what I ever did. When I was in high school, my mom used to tell my sister and I that if we were ever to get any tattoos, we could not come back home. And now I have several, and she loves every one of them.”
Walt, 10: “The best thing my mom ever did for me was buy me my pet newt.”
Lilly, 7: “When I was seven years old, my mom bought me an American Girls doll.”
Sophia, 9: “The best thing my mom has ever done for me is, when I was having friend trouble a while back, she gave me advice.”