Mother's Day

       I am the youngest of six children. There is a substantial gap between myself and my siblings. Three of them were out of high school when I was born. Often I am asked if I was a mistake, which for the record is kind of rude and everyone should stop saying that. Unplanned is a better way to ask the question without implying that someone's existence should not be. Anyway, according to my mother, I was not unplanned.  But unplanned or not, my birth, according to The Birth Order Book by Kevin Leman, started a new family. In his book Leman states that after a seven year gap without children being born, a new family begins. Thus according to his research, my behavior is more similar to an only child rather than one raised with five siblings. 

       I am closest in age to my sister Gwendolyn, who is just eleven years older than me. The next closest in age is Paul whose lap I'm sitting on in the picture. As I grew my siblings moved away to various locations around the country. My parents took me as we traveled around the country to visit them. We went to Pennsylvania then Arizona to see Sandy, New Jersey then Virginia to visit Dana, Chicago to visit Paul and Robert, and Northern Michigan to visit Gwendolyn who eventually moved to the Chicago area. I am leaving out their spouses and children here to make things simpler, but our family is wonderfully large. 
       My mother did many admirable things for me as I grew up, but there are two that stand out as life altering and which I see as immensely influential in my life. 

• She read to me. Every. Single. Day. We read The Chronicles of Narnia, Mandie books, and so many more. She read to me from The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes along with other Bible books. Here's what I find to be incredible. We would read. She would use different voices for the characters. She would pause and ask what I thought would happen next. She would execute a perfect cliffhanger at the end of a chapter or section making me want to come back for more. We would talk about the book when we finished it, reviewing our favorite parts and characters. Basically, she followed every suggestion in The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease without every having read it. As I read articles about how to teach reading comprehension and see examples of questions to ask at the end of stories in teacher's editions, I smile thinking that my mom intuitively knew how to read like that and for that I will always be impressed and thankful.
• She let me be bored. True, at the time I was most ungrateful for this, but looking back it was a wonderful gift. She didn't fill me day with plans and projects. Although we did do many projects and do many activities, there was plenty of downtime where I was told, "Go play. Go do something." I read Childcraft books about famous people, I read and re-read my Charlie Brown Encyclopedias, I played with the "helicopters" that fell from our maple tree, I made up stories in my head, and played for hours with my stuffed animals and Barbies. This time made me content to be on my own. It exercised my imagination to reach beyond my own backyard and travel to words known only to me and my inner creative self. I would not have read all those books if a device that would entertain me had been there. I would not have found those helicopters if someone was there with a state of the art technology occupy me. With the wisdom of hindsight I can appreciate the time I spent being bored and how it helped me.  

      Our early life impacts us deeply and guides directs the path of our lives. I am thankful for my family and the way our dynamic made me who I am today. Thank you, mom, for reading to me and allowing me to be bored. Of course, I can think of many other things she did that impacted me in a positive way, but I've got to save something for next year. 

​You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be --
I had a Mother who read to me.
Strickland Gillilan