A Norvell Note
December 8, 2024, Vol. 28 No. 48
It’s Been Sixty Years
Sixty years ago today, my mother died. That was 21,900 days ago. I was eleven years old. Very few of those days have not included an image or thought about her. Today is undoubtedly one of those days.
There are days when I have trouble remembering her face and voice, days when I long to see her face and hear her voice again, days when I wish I could sit with her and talk about life and world events, and days when I’m glad she is beyond this life and free from world events.
There are days when I think I should have moved beyond the grief, days when the grief weighs me down, and days when I feel I have moved beyond it. Then, there are days when I wonder if I processed the grief at all.
Sometimes, I ponder what my life would have been like had my mother not died when she was forty-four. Would I have gone to Arkansas State University in 1970? Would I have responded to the Lord’s call into the ministry, or would I have chosen a profession that would have kept me closer to home?
I often wonder what she would think of my wife, children, and grandchildren. And what would they think of her? What would she think of the life I am living?
I have thought about my mother a lot today, as I do every December 8, 9, and 10. Some of my thoughts were sad, but mostly, I thought about how those eleven years with her have shaped my life and how grateful I am for how her short life continues to teach me the value of living life to the fullest by loving God and loving people. My mother has been gone for sixty years, but she lives on in my mind and my heart.
A Norvell Note © Copyright 2024 Tom Norvell All Rights Reserved.