What will your children remember about you? This week's Five Minute Friday prompt is "What Mama Did." All week long Lisa-Jo Baker has featured guest bloggers on her site who have shared their own unique memories of their mothers. Now she's giving writers everywhere a chance to share in the fun. So here's my own five-minute version of "What Mama Did." Of course, my mother is so much more than just this glimpse... she's truly one of the most amazing women I know. What Mama Did...
She fought. When cancer came calling, she donned her boxing gloves and gave it her best right hook, sending it sprawling. She was only 33, with a demanding job as a registered nurse and three kids under 12. But she wasn't about to let the "C" word win.
My seven-year-old self was terrified. Night after night, I lay in my bed, praying my mommy would live.
And live, she did. She trusted God with every fiber of her being. Even when the chemo wasn't working and her beautiful long hair was falling out in clumps, she kept on caring for our family, kept telling people about Jesus, kept living out her faith in her wig for all the world to see.
When I look back on it now, I am speechless. How she managed to be the brave nurse by day and keep a house running with three rambunctious kids and a cop/husband who worked the night shift is still a mystery to me. I never once heard a complaint uttered from her lips. She just quietly persevered, clinging to Jesus every second.
And she made it, with God's help. She lived to tell her grandkids tales of her childhood and stories of how Grandma fought cancer, punched it in the eye, stood in the center of the ring with God at her side...
And won.
