I work full time, I have a great husband and a 15 year old son. I’m the president of the local soccer association. I teach Sunday school. I have a garden. I teach one night a week. And I love doing it all.

I also take care of my mother in our home.

When I was young, after we ran away from my father, we lived in a travel trailer. This was at a time when you were looked down on for living in a trailer. The phrase ‘mobile home’ had not been coined yet. My mother had no training to work, so she took a train into Philadelphia every day to learn to be a keypunch operator.

The trailer was 8′ wide and about 30′ long. Mom and I slept in a twin bed in the middle. My brother slept on the couch in the living room. In the winter, we layered newspaper between the thin blankets we had, and lit the oil heater. Often our toilet was frozen when we woke up. We walked to school, almost 3 miles. I remember Mom coming to find us once, because there was a blizzard. I lost a pretty scarf that I had that day, one my uncle Harry had given me. I didn’t have another one.

We had a 5 gallon hot water heater, so every night I heated extra water so I could wash my hair. We also caught rain water in a barrel and massaged an egg into our hair for the shine. We planted morning glories around the trailer, and they swirled up their strings and blossomed magnificently around our tiny home.

There were vegetable fields all around us, so after the harvesters had picked, we would sneak out and gather the remains. Sometimes we had a lot of tomatoes, or asparagus, and those were good days.

I particularly remember an evening when Mom fixed a bit of rice and chili and split it between my brother and me. We opened the tiny folding table and when we sat to eat I asked her why she wasn’t eating.

She looked right at me and said that she’d eaten as she cooked. Even in my youth I knew she lied, and that was wrong, but I thought she was very brave for lying and going hungry. That incident has always stayed close to me. Once Mom and I were invited to a wedding. My aunt and uncle took me with them, and I wore the only dress my mother had. It was too big, but I felt very important wearing it. I was asked to dance, and was terrified; but I was sure it was because I looked so fetching in that royal blue dress. Twice a year we went to the hardware store and purchased a tin of flax soap. We mixed it in a bucket with hot water and scrubbed our trailer from top to bottom. It’s a wonderful scent – try to experience it someday. Mom always said just because we didn’t have a lot of money, we could still be clean and spotless. I never went to school without an ironed and starched blouse, and my brother a white shirt. (I still love to iron!)

One year my brother came home on leave from the Army and picked me up at the drugstore where I worked after school. He took me right to the store and bought me a winter coat. I had that coat for years! I was so proud of it.

And now I take care of my Mom. She had a lot of health problems, and when we first brought her into our home she could not walk or hardly talk. But she’s much better now. She gets tired easily, and is on oxygen all the time, and she has a new valve in her heart, but things are improving all the time.

Is it a burden caring for an invalid? No. It’s just a turn-around. Was it hard for her to care for us? I think so.

Well, I just wanted to say that life can be tough. Make the best of it, and see the wonderful things in life. Like morning glories, and the smell of flax soap. And the thought that you can give someone a chance to live with dignity. We need to let each other know that we appreciate them, and their sacrifices, and how much they mean. Please tell someone today that you love them, and why.

Wanita Bates batesw@sfcc.cc.fl.us