My mother, God bless her soul, always told me I was well loved because I had three mothers! What she meant was that I was loved by not just her but also her two sisters, and I equally loved them back. The last of the sisters passed away a few months ago, and I know I felt alone and sad as her body was lowered into her grave, but it is not about her I write about today, nor about my mother who passed away a few years ago in Baltimore, it is about the eldest of the three, who lived a spinster, alone in her little home and when she passed away in Bangalore, over a decade and a half ago, I went down for her funeral.
After the funeral rites I reluctantly went to her little room, where my cousin and I had set her up. We went through her meager belongings and gave away most of it to her maid who had looked after her faithfully, but there on her bed I came across an old book by Oswald Chambers, ‘My Utmost for the Highest’ which many of my friends and relatives have later seen next to my rocking chair in my home. It is a book of daily devotions written in the old fashioned English spoken in the early nineteen hundreds. Inside the book there was a photo of me as a little boy, the way I must have remained in my aunt’s heart.
But yesterday while opening the old and worn well book I found she had scribbled these lines inside the cover, it is obviously from an old hymn and the title is ‘Be Strong’.
Here are the lines, read it and remember it when you need strength:
Be strong!
We are not here to play, to dream, to drift;
We have hard work to do and loads to lift;
Shun not the struggle, face it, ’tis God’s gift.
Be strong, be strong, be strong!
Be strong!
Say not the days are evil—who’s to blame?
And fold the hands and acquiesce—O shame!
Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God’s name.
Be strong, be strong, be strong!
Be strong!
It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day, how long;
Faint not, fight on! Tomorrow comes the song.
Be strong, be strong, be strong!
What lovely words they are. I wonder how often my dear aunt whispered these words to herself and derived strength as she struggled through life alone!
Be strong my dear friends, for tomorrow comes the song of victory..!
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Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and writes a daily column, which has graced the pages of over 60 newspapers and magazines, from a daily column in the Khaleej Times, Dubai, the Morning Star, London, and in nearly every state in India, from The Statesman in Kolkata, to the Kashmir Times in Kashmir to the Trinity Mirror in Chennai.
Beautiful and uplifting words of wisdom Bobby, thanks for sharing. Today we certainly need words of encouragement especially in these gloomy times of sickness and sorrow. Victory comes to those who prevail against all odds. Be strong and take courage, the Lord has promised never to leave us nor forsake us.
We may reconcile to the loss of any worldly thing, no natter how precious. We cannot however reconcile to the loss of a loving mother. A Senior shouldn’t be alone in his or her old age. That’s when they need us the most. Parents train us to be strong, they train us to develop psychological hardiness to face the umpteen wrongs people will do unto us in our life.
Physical debilities brought on by old age are compounded by loneliness and they lose hope and become depressed and melancholic making it easy for death to lay it’s icy hands upon them. When a person leaves this world, he or she should be surrounded by all his or her dear ones. A Senior must never be given away to the great killer disease…loneliness.
That’s a touching piece Bob dedicated to your Aunt and 3 Moms You are truly blessed May her words of wisdom guide you and inspire all of us May their souls rest in eternal peace with the Almighty ?