Mother’s Love..!
Very vividly do I remember from my childhood, the taste of rich plum cake: My mother during the evenings worked as a secretary to an American author, and as her duties happened during tea time, she was served tea and a slice of plum cake. This plum cake was quickly put into her purse and brought home, where my brother and I greedily devoured the piece every day!
Victor Hugo tells the story of a French mother who after the Revolution was driven from her home with her two children. She had wandered through the woods for several days living on roots and leaves.
On the third morning they hid in some bushes on the approach of two soldiers, a captain and a sergeant. The captain ordered the sergeant to find out what was stirring in the bushes, and he prodded the trembling mother and her two children out. They were brought to the captain’s side and he saw in an instant that they were starving: He immediately gave them a long loaf of brown French bread.
The mother grabbed the loaf from the captains hand, like a famished animal, and then to the surprise of both the soldiers broke it into two pieces, giving one piece to one child and the other to the second.
The sergeant looked up to his captain and asked, “Is it because she is not hungry?” The captain replied, “No sergeant, it is because she is a mother..!”
Something I used to find very amusing in the early days of my marriage was the cry my wife made when she was frightened. Whether it was a flying cockroach or labour pains, the first word that came from her lips was always “mama!” It still is.
I wish I could sing you the words that have been sung so expressively by Johnny Cash and Shirley Caesar, the song ‘No Charge’ in which:
A little boy came up to his mum in the kitchen this evenin’
While she was fixin’ supper.
And he handed her a piece of paper that he’d been writin’ on
And after wipin’ her hands on her apron
She read it- and this is what it said:
For mowin the lawn-five dollars
For makin’ my own bed this week- one dollar
An’ playin’with little brother while you went shopping
Twenty five cents.
Well as his mum looked at him standin’ there expectantly
I could see mem’ries flashing through her mind
And so she picked up the pen and turnin’ the paper over
This is what she wrote.
For the nine months I carried you, growin’ inside me
No charge
For the nights I’ve sat up with you, doctored you, prayed for you
No charge.
For the time and the tears, that you’ve caused through the years, there’s
No charge
And when you add it all up. The full cost of my love is No charge..!
I dedicate this piece today on Mothers day to my beloved mother, to the mother of my two children and to all the mothers in the world.
The cost of their love- No charge..!
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