By T.L. HEADLEY, MBA, MAT, MA, BA
Probably no one has played a bigger role in my life than my mother. I think that can be said by just about anyone.
My Mom
She has been the center of my world for most of my life – my teacher, my coach, my counselor, my defender, my champion and my best friend.
Mom was very young when I was born — about 19. I guess in a sense you could say she learned how to be a mom in a trial by fire. It couldn’t have been easy with me and then my brother Jeff and my sister Peg coming along fairly close together.
In all truth, I have a bit “difficult” since birth — a bit ornery even when I was born. I was what was called back then a “blue baby” when she had me at Dr. McClellan’s clinic in West Hamlin. My heart and breathing didn’t start like it should have and I had to be given a shot in the heart to kick-start me. Just a few days later I developed colic, so her sleeping any was pretty much out of the question. Luckily my Grandmother and Grandfather were there to help take care of me. We lived with them for a time after I was born.
As I got a little older my mom would read to me from a set of Bible story books she and dad bought. We would sit on the bed and she would read the stories slowly, moving her finger under each word and before you knew it I was reading myself. Mom was never trained as a teacher but she gave me the gift of loving to read and to learn and for that I will always be grateful.
By the time I was in first grade, with her help, I was able to finish the reading requirements all the way through the 6th grade before I finished the year.
Mom was also my first coach. She taught me how to play baseball with an old whiffle ball and bat. We would play “rolly-hit-the-bat” with my brother and sister. She got us one of those lawn jai alai sets – the ones with the plastic balls and rackets and she taught us how to catch a ball. She always loved to play horseshoes and we would spend what seemed like hours pitching horseshoes on our lawn.
Mom knew I loved to learn about things. She and dad spent what back then was a small fortune buying a set of World Book Encyclopedias for us to use. I would sit for hours reading and re-reading those books like I was finding buried treasure and it opened my mind up to the big, broad world around us.
She was my defender. When I had trouble in school – if a bully was picking on me or I was having problems with a teacher — she was always there to “fix things.” When I was in high school and got into a fight on our bus – getting my nose busted and spraying blood all over the bus – she stood up for me. I was expelled for fighting and expected to get grounded or worse, but she said it wasn’t my fault and neither her nor dad ever said a word.
Mom was the best cook in the world (except for my grandma and now at the expense of getting killed by her, my wife). There were a lot of times – like when dad was on strike or when he was off after his heart attack – that money was very, very tight and she would do whatever it took to get food for her kids. Yes, there were times when there wasn’t much to cook, but she always found a way and made us good food to eat. We never went hungry – though I am not so sure that is true of her and my dad.
Most of all she has been my best friend. She was the person I would go to with my problems and fears, when I was sick or when my heart was broken. Yes, there were a few times before I met Kim when I thought my world was coming to an end over some girl.
When my cousins and I would fight and argue and fuss (and it happened all the time) she was there to make sure it got worked out. And when I was older and my friends (some of whom may have been a little unstable when it came to some substances common in the 1970s) would climb through my window in the middle of the night and she would find four or five people crashed out in my bedroom the next morning, she would fix us all breakfast and get us off to school – and she never failed to tell them she was disappointed in them. Somehow they all got through it alive.
And when I finally went to college at WVU, mom and I had such a bond that the first semester she ran up a $900 phone bill for long distance to Morgantown. She also helped me decide to come home and transfer to Marshall.
When my oldest, Ian, was born, mom would come to my house in the middle of the night to help with the baby. She would sit up and rock him. We had no idea she had heart problems at the time and shortly afterward found herself in the hospital getting a heart stint put in after suffering a heart attack.
My mom is a rock. She has always put her children and grandchildren and now great-grandchildren first.
So mom, thank you for being my mom. I could not have asked for a better mom, a better friend and a better home than the one you gave me. I love you and I want to make sure you know it.
The Mind's Eye 