Love You Forever

because you read Black Beauty, Little Women, Where the Red Fern Grows, Summer of the Monkeys, Little Britches, Stories to Tell, Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites, The Secret Garden, The Jungle Book, Tales of King Arthur and His Knights, Winnie the Pooh, The Wind in the Willows and so many others to us to us on languid summer afternoons when we were very young

because you took us to the Hyrum City Library every summer week when we were old enough to choose from the shelves ourselves

because you made waffles in the morning while we studied our scriptures and read that men like Nephi and Alma were heroes

because you helped us see Nephi's and Alma's in our everyday lives and made our father and our grandfathers and our uncles heroes of an even better value

because you gave us each a garden patch

because you let me sing to The Phantom of the Opera and Rigoletto and Reba McEntire's Greatest Hits

because you taught me how to play the piano

because you let me play Cinderella even though it worried you

because you both never were afraid to say "I Love You"

because you are good

because you microwave my food longer than your own because you know I like my food much hotter than yours

because you rubbed Vick's Vap-o-rub and alcohol packs and mustard packs on my weak chest and because you took me to doctors and specialists and because you and dad held me up to the cold air from the freezer and the warm moist air in the shower late at night when I couldn't breathe

because you never left the examination rooms when I had to rest on my stomach when the nurses pricked my back and the pricks swelled up and itched and you just tickled me so I wouldn't scratch at the reactions

because you came to every performance, and now come to every performance you can

because you encouraged my brothers and I to love each other

because I inherited your laugh

because you make me feel safe to be my best self

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always.
As long as I'm living,
My mommy you'll be.


Happy Mother's Day, Mom.