Of Turkeys and Mommas | Wyoming Photographer and Blogger

I’m thankful for my mom.

My dad died three years ago today.  But as I cooked Thanksgiving dinner and enjoyed turkey,pie and a meal with my family and one of our new friends, it wasn’t my dad that was on my mind so much as my mom.  While I stirred candied sweet potatoes and buttered rolls, I said a prayer for her.  A prayer of comfort for her hurting heart and another of sheer gratitude for having that amazing woman on my team for 41 years.

My dad, affectionately known as Big John in his community, was a bit of a larger than life personality.  He had a big, booming voice, a big frame and a big personality.  He loved to laugh, never backed down from a challenge and was about as extroverted as you can get.  He was, in most respects, the public face of our family.

But as the old saying goes, behind every great man is a great woman.  While Big John was out heading committees and running Cheyenne Frontier Days and earning community accolades, it was my mom that powered our family.  Penny used to describe herself as a homemaker, back before that term fell out of vogue.   But it describes her role perfectly…she made our house a home.  She raised kids, loved dogs, cooked meals, volunteered at our church, served as a room mother in our schools, rescued lost hamsters, designed the most amazing Valentine’s Day boxes, ironed Dad’s shirts and did it all with humility, patience and kindness.

My mom is one of the most unassuming people I’ve ever known.  In fact, she’ll probably be embarrassed that I’m even writing this.  Sorry, Mom.  She has an amazing capacity for love and forgiveness.  She always sees the best in people and is trusting to a fault.  It would be easy to brush those qualities off as naïve.  But she’s not naïve.  She’s not gullible.  She just chooses to first see the best  in people and believe the best about them.

Those qualities also made her a tremendous mother.  She created a home of love and acceptance and forgiveness.  Growing up, I never questioned her love or devotion to our family.  I also never questioned her authority.  I grew up in a time of the more mellow Penny, but my sisters can attest to having their mouths washed out with soap, being locked out of the house and I seem to recall a story of two of them having their hands taped together because they wouldn’t quit fighting.

But no matter how mad Mom might have been at me in the moment, I knew it was only a matter of time before all would be forgiven.   It is one of the qualities I admire most in her.  I can get my hackles up about something that happened fifteen years ago.  Mom, on the other hand, lets most stuff roll off her back.  I think the only thing I’ve truly seen her bitter about is the Holiday Bowl football game where Barry Sanders rushed for approximately 4,643 yards against her beloved Wyoming Cowboys.  I swear the woman has PTSD from it.  Please don’t ever play the OSU fight song in her presence.  I beg you.

Whenever I tell Mom about some project I’m working on or just completed, she just shakes her head and says “Oh you’re so creative.  I’m not sure where you get that.”  But I get it from her.  She wasn’t a writer or a photographer, but she was a creator.  She sewed.  She cooked.  When I was 8 and decided I needed to take owl cookies to school for my birthday, she made her own template out of cardboard and used candy corns for beaks.  I shudder to think of what the woman could have accomplished hand she had Pinterest at her disposal.

I resemble my father in so many ways.  I look like him, I have his curiosity, his drive, his penchant for yelling and his competiveness.  And while I will be forever grateful for his influence in my life, as I travel down my own path of motherhood, I find myself wishing for just a smidge more of my mom in me….more patience, more compassion, more forgiveness, more humility, more selflessness.

So thanks, Mom.  Thanks for being such an amazing example of a wife, mother and friend.  You made us a family, gave us a home and rounded out the rough edges with your soft heart and gentleness.  I love you and am thankful for you more than words could ever express.