Race of a Lifetime

I received an email from my angel mother today. So did ten other people.

She was feeling sad. Her baby has just graduated from the sixth grade. Do you know what that means?

For "thirty-two consecutive years" my mother has had a child (usually several children) in elementary school.

Thirty-two years!!! Think of it! I'm sure--even with my wild imagination--I don't fully comprehend the long race that represents.

Nightly reading packets to sign, class parties, multiplication memorization, state reports, class plays with poor sound systems, morning rush to the bus, book reports, sack lunches with heart felt notes written on napkins, clean clothes and well-coifed hair before 7 am, after school snacks, states and capitals, parent-teacher conferences, Hope of America, lost library books, teacher appreciation week, spelling lists, geography bees, art projects, forgotten books and lunches. . .

Years upon years of hurdle after hurdle, one foot in front of the other, one step at a time.


And when she finished the race, there were no camera crews, no medals, no cash prizes.

Just eleven children in the stand, cheering, applauding, praising her blessed, blessed name.

For those eleven children, her thirty-two years made ALL the difference.

Her efforts, sacrifice, tears, and love that went into those many, many. . .many sleep deprived years will go largely unheralded by the world.

But isn't that the way of it for angels?