| A Mother's Love |
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Heart! ~ If you are not a subscriber and this has been passed on to you, join us by sending a blank e-mail to four_ears @ msn.com with "subscribe" in the subject line. And get the love direct! Tour our website: http://www.geocities.com/jenniferioliver2001 Tour our archives: http://geocities.com/jenniferioliver2001/Archives.htm ________________________________________________________ Folks, October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Last year I nominated my neighbor, Doris Morgan, as Family Member of the Year, and she was selected and honored at a luncheon in October. Here is my story about this incredible woman. _______________________________________ A MOTHER'S LOVE "Mom," Cody said one morning. "Can we go see the big, giant machine over there?" "Yeah!" his younger brothers piped up. "Can we, Mom? Please, please, please?" With a sinking feeling, I knew what machine they were talking about. The backhoe was on the lot nearest ours, leveling the land around the new gray-bricked home quickly taking shape. We had moved to the country to get away from neighbors. Now it looked like neighbors had found us. For a while there, big machines shattered the quiet, tracking large clumps of mud in the road and annoying us to no end. I sighed. "Okay, guys, let's go," I relented. We watched from the road as the man skillfully manipulated the backhoe, digging and leveling the lot. A white sign was posted at the edge of the road. "Doris Morgan," the sign boasted. My husband, Stephen, was the first to meet her. He was working in his garden when he lent his wheelbarrow to her for yard work. "Well?" I asked him. "What's she like?" He shrugged his shoulders and replied, "She seems real nice. Hey, did you know her son and his construction crew built her house?" "Really?" "Yep. He's in a wheelchair because of some car accident. That was him on that backhoe." "What?!" What appeared to our untrained eyes to be an ordinary task at hand was accomplished by a man paralyzed from the waist down, who had mechanically adapted the backhoe, along with other large machinery and vehicles, to fit his needs. It didn't take us long to warm up to our new neighbor. Doris Morgan was a real estate secretary retired after three major back surgeries and heart problems. Miss Doris, we affectionately called her. Slight in stature with the stamina of a twenty-year-old in spite of her medical problems, Miss Doris has a heart that fills the world. We began house-sitting for each other, and in exchange for helping plant her grass, Miss Doris baked cookies for us. We grieved with her when she lost her sister one Thanksgiving. When I was away on business, she made casseroles for my husband and kids. Stephen mowed her lawn whenever he had time. The favors volleyed back and forth between our households. Stephen rang her doorbell one evening. It was nearing the end of Valentine's Day, and he was clutching a vase filled with flowers he had arranged earlier. "Yes?" he heard her ask on the other side of the door. "Miss Doris, it's me -- Stephen," he said. She cracked the door open with a questioning smile. "These are for you," he said, handing her the vase. "I know this is a bad week for you, but we didn't want you to think we'd forgotten you on Valentine's Day." She began to cry and hugged him. "Oh, Stephen, you are such a sweetheart." The week of Valentine's Day was the anniversary of her beloved husband's passing. She made a sacred point of withdrawing from the world during that week. And we made a point of connecting with her during the hardest time of the year for her. Doris Morgan was honored for all she does for her son, who relies on her on his bad days. She does his taxes for him, babysits his rental properties, cooks, cleans, and shops for him when he is unable to, and nurses him through the hard times. "God don't give me more than I can handle," she declared. Truly the sound of a mother's love. It's been almost five years since Miss Doris moved into the home her son built. One can see her outside with our boys trailing behind her in her gardens. The neighbors may have found us. But what we found instead was family. Jennifer Oliver four_ears @ msn.com Copyright © 2001 by Jennifer Oliver. All rights reserved. _______________________________________ QUOTE FROM LESSER KNOWN FOLKS "If scientists need to find something to clone, they should clone this woman's heart," I said to the television news reporter of Doris Morgan, my neighbor who won the 2001 Family Member of the Year from the Bell County Judge's and Commissioners' Committee on People with Disabilities. _______________________________________ FAMILY LOVE MOMENT After a tour of historic log cabins on a Cub Scout outing, the pack canceled the picnic afterwards since it began to rain. "Ethan, how about you and me go on a picnic by ourselves?" I asked. "It wouldn't be fair if it was just you and me, Mom. I think we should invite Cody and Matthew and Madison, and I'll share my lunch with them." _______________________________________ POWER OF PRAYER I ask for your prayers for a neighbor boy named T.J. Cody and Ethan paid the Kindergartener a visit on the way home from the bus stop, wondering why they hadn't seen him on the bus lately. They were in for a shock. T.J.'s head, arms, fingers, and torso were bandaged. He mentioned something to the boys about a fire and gasoline. We are not aware of the full circumstances, but we all know that combination is potentially lethal. He had obviously gotten too close to the blast. Your prayers would be much appreciated at this time. _______________________________________ ON THE HOMEFRONT HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our beautiful niece, Sascha! She is expecting her first child in December, making my sister a first-time gramma. Ethan spent the last week at home from school, nursing the frog in his throat. A viral infection in his sinuses made his whole head hurt. He was feverish, achy, listless. Cody came home alone on the bus, threw his arms around Ethan, and said, "Are you okay, Ethan? I was worried about you!" It was only a matter of time before Matthew got sick. "Mommy, my throat hurts!" Matthew cried. "Ethan made me sick because he was hugging me too much! Miraculously untouched by the virus, Cody made get-well cards for his brothers. He put all three of them under the rainbow, and above the rainbow were the words, "I love Ethan and Matthew. I wish you not sik. I hope you get better so we can play tag. I love my hole family!" The law of averages is working overtime in our household. Madison woke up this morning burning with fever, the poor thing. I guess she was hugged too much. LOVE, JENNIFER I. OLIVER AND FAMILY four_ears @ msn.com When you are born, you cry and everyone is happy. So live your life in such a way that when you die, everyone cries and you are happy. - Unknown _______________________________________ This E-mail may be forwarded in its entirety, but first ask the writer for permission before forwarding. Thank you for doing the decent thing! Ü _______________________________________ SUBMIT STORY, QUOTE, OR FAMILY LOVE MOMENT: http://www.geocities.com/jenniferioliver2001/submission.htm FEEDBACK: four_ears @ msn.com _______________________________________ |
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