If you’ve followed this blog, you may know that my mom has been ill as of late. Ever since she had to go on dialysis for her kidney failure 6 years ago (first peritoneal and now hemo), she’s had some health issues. Most of these have been minor, but over the past year she’s had to fight through a lot. She’s very close to getting a new kidney. A few checkmarks are needed, though. One of those was her stomach surgery a couple months back. She’s lost over 150 pounds through dedication and hard work, and as a result (to get gross for a minute) they had to remove some excess skin so the kidney transplant would go more smoothly. She had to stay in the hospital for 25 days or so following that ordeal, and just last night I had to take her back because of what turned out to be possible pneumonia.

I am just about to return to the hospital with soup in tow.

I write this not to go through her ordeal, but to tell you what an amazing influence she’s been on my life. As you are probably able to guess, it was not always easy raising me. It’s not always easy to be my mother even now, actually. However, she has handled the ordeal with grace and understanding, even when mine was sometimes lacking. There is no other person on this earth, save my wife Nora, who has stuck by me through thick and thin. My mom just has about 3 decades more practice than Nora.

Something that I doubt any of you know is that I also have a brother named Evan who was strickened with severe cerebral palsy at birth. He was a couple months premature, like myself, but unlike me he didn’t get enough oxygen as he was being delivered, resulting in the ailment described above. My mother never complained and always considered my brother nothing else besides a joy. To say taking care of him was sometimes hard on her would be an understatement. She never wavered. Oh, and I’m not even going to get into my father and her ex-husband, who I also love even though there have been some tough times. Needless to say, her plate has always remained full.

She is an amazing woman and I am so lucky to have had her as my mother all these years. I could not imagine life without her and I am very hopeful that she is coming up on the end of her kidney transplant journey. I love her so very much. Hopefully, she loves this soup I’m about to bring her.