Fourth of July

Wow, been a while since I posted on here!  Lots going on in my life right now, but can't neglect this holiday going by without a mention.  Independence Day was a special day for my mom and me.  It wasn't the fireworks or anything like that, though they played a part.   When I was about 3 years old, my mom had Hodgekins Lymphoma.  In the 70s, this was pretty much a death sentence, and hers had spread to her bones.  She had been given 6 months to live not more than a week or so before the 4th of July that year.  My dad, who was working 60 hour weeks to pay for my mom's treatments, was working the evening of that July 4th in the glass factory in our home town.  The house we lived in, sat within walking distance to the plant and the park behind that, where they shot off the fireworks.  My mom was too frail to take me to the park and it was raining that evening anyway.   Despite the rain, they decided to shoot the fireworks.  So we sat, me on her lap, in the cab of my dad's old truck, the rain hitting the window, watching the fireworks shooting up over the black outline of Owens-Illinois glass factory.  I was entranced by the pretty lights, but I didn't know till years later that my mom was crying, holding back tears that streamed down her face, because she thought that was going to be the last July 4th that she would ever spend with me.  She didn't think she would see me grow up.

How wrong she was!  God had other plans for my mom.  Not only did she see me grow up, she saw me graduate high school, college and Graduate school, get married, have a career and many other milestones.  So each year the 4th came around, it was another year she got to spend with the little girl in the truck all those years ago.  

Though God did eventually take my mom home this past year, and many of the holidays this year have been a struggle, I want to make this one the celebration its intended to be. 

Because this year, my mom is really living more than she ever did.  I miss her, but that isn't what I plan to think of. 

That's enough reason for fireworks in itself!