When I was eight, my Mother died from cancer. Now, the question was: Just how was Dad going to manage my brother and me without help? The answer followed: We would move in together with Mary, Ed and Edna and become one big family. Sounds great, huh? Well, for me, my brother, and my dad, it was a lifesaver. We now had a good, loving and stable family.
Sometimes it was hard to explain my family, but my brother had no trouble at all. Once, when someone asked him who Mary was, he replied with, "Oh she's the woman my Dad lives with."(not explaining the situation, of course) Needless to say, that memory brings a smile to all our faces.
As I have grown older, I have often thought of the sacrifice Mary had to make in this situation. Edna, Mary's daughter was grown and it was the time for Mary to enjoy the freedom that comes with having grown children. A time to do things that maybe she always wanted to do, but didn't have the chance. And she gave it all up to help raise someone else's children. No greater gift can a person give than themselves to help another. Mary and Ed both did that for my brother and me.
How do you ever thank or repay someone for a gift such as that? The answer is: You can't. I could write a book about all that this wonderful woman has done for me, my brother and my Dad. Not that Ed and Edna did not have to make sacrifices, also. They surely did, but Mary was the "mother figure" and bore most of the burden in this combined family.
Ed and my Dad are gone now, but Mary is with us and still rules the roost at her daughter's house I hear. (smile) I always wonder if she knows how very much I appreciate her great gift and if she really knows how much I love her.
The song you are hearing is "If Tomorrow Never Comes" by Garth Brooks. As the words to the song say: "If I never wake up in the morning, would she ever doubt the way I feel about her in my heart?" I never want Mary to doubt how I feel.
If tomorrow never comes,
'Cause I've lost love ones in the past,
So tell that someone that you love
FOR MARY, WHO MADE MY WORLD A BETTER ONE.
A little background: When I was two years old, my family and my parent's best friend's family (Mary, Ed and Edna) moved together from Union, Missouri to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
Excerpt from: "IF TOMORROW NEVER COMES" BY GARTH BROOKS.
.....If I never wake up in the morning,
Would she ever doubt the way I feel
About her in my heart?
Will she know how much I loved her?
Did I try in every way to show her every day,
That she's my only one?
And if my time on earth were through,
And she must face this world without me.
Is the love I gave her in the past,
Gonna be enough to last,
If tomorrow never comes.
Who never knew how much I loved them.
Now I live with the regret
That my true feelings for them never were revealed.
So I made a promise to myself
To say each day how much she means to me,
And avoid that circumstance
Where there's no second chance to tell her how I feel.
Just what you're thinking of.
If tomorrow never comes.
M Is for the many things she gave me,
TO THE ONLY MOTHER I REALLY EVER KNEW:
(Please, don't imagine me singing this.You know my voice (grin).
Sing it yourself as you read, but know that I sing it in my heart.)
O Means only that she's growing old.
T Is for the tears she shed to save me,
H Is for her heart of purest gold.
E Is for her eyes with lovelight shinning,
R Means right and right she'll always be.
Put them all together, They spell MOTHER.
A word that means the world to me.
MY VERSION
Put them all together, they spell MOTHER,
THAT'S WHAT SHE'LL ALWAYS BE TO ME.
MAYBE YOU HAVE A SPECIAL SOMEONE THAT GAVE YOU A PRECIOUS GIFT. PLEASE, DON'T PUT OFF TELLING THOSE YOU LOVE JUST HOW MUCH THEY MEAN TO YOU. AFTER ALL, THERE IS NO PROMISE OF ANOTHER MINUTE, HOUR, OR DAY. SAY IT NOW. DON'T REGRET WHAT YOU DIDN'T SAY LATER.
IN MEMORY OF THE LOVED ONES NOW MISSING FROM OUR FAMILY.
DAD (COUIE), ED (MY FOSTER FATHER), ROSS (MY OLDEST SON)
CHARLIE (MY BROTHER) AND DAN (MY CHILDREN'S FATHER)
THE MEMORIES OF HER LIVE ON IN OUR HEARTS ALWAYS.
I'M CERTAIN THAT SHE WOULD BE HAPPY TO KNOW THAT MARY WAS THERE FOR US.
SHE WILL BE SO VERY MISSED.
SOURCE OF GRAPHICS UNKNOWN. PLEASE LET ME KNOW
IF YOU KNOW WHERE THEY CAME FROM SO THAT I CAN GIVE PROPER CREDIT.
