Mother's Day – Isaiah Jacobs

Happy Mother’s Day!

I would like to wish the mothers and grandmothers who read my posts a very happy Mother’s Day! May you have a blessed day with your family.

Today is a holiday that is not very popular with me since my mother passed away twelve years ago. I’m not sure if it’s the holiday that causes me to miss her as it is the season.

My mother was an avid gardener. She loved planting flowers and other plants in her yard. When I was around 7 years old or so, Mom planted a vegetable garden behind the house. It was pretty tasty to eat the vegetables she had grown. While I haven’t taken on her interest in growing vegetables, I have gotten into planting flowers. I have to laugh, as there hasn’t been a season since her passing that I haven’t wanted to call her for advice.

Recently, I had an opportunity to sit in a meeting to hear a lady from Canada discuss her life with Charcot-Marie-Tooth CMT). She discussed having quite a few challenges that were quite a bit like what I have dealt with over the years. Something she said reminded me of my mother’s love for me. My mother never hesitated to let me know she loved me. As a young man, that wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear back then. However, as I look back and think about it, her expressions of love often helped me to deal with the headaches of CMT. I will never know how much she really knew about it since at the time, there wasn’t much written and we certainly did not have access to what was.

So love your mom. Hug your mom. Enjoy your mom as much as you possibly can. Happy Mother’s Day!

Charcot-Marie-Tooth: Happy Mother’s Day!

For some reason or another, I am really missing my mother this year. I’m not sure why, as she passed away in 2011. I know we miss our parents after they pass away, but it’s really strong this year.

As a man with Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT), I have become very thankful for the mother God gave me. When I was a child growing up, my mother was always loving, caring, and encouraging me.

Encouraging? Yes. She knew that I had CMT and probably had an idea about the struggles I might face in the future, even though there wasn’t much information about it back then. I remember the many times she would encourage me never to give up and to keep going. I sometimes speculate that she saw other family members with the disease who weren’t always very positive and maybe gave up easily, and she didn’t want me to do that. Since my mother is deceased, I cannot verify these thoughts, but she always went the extra mile for her boys.

I heard a comment on the radio this week, “No one loves you like your mother!” So true. That is a special love only given by those who become mothers.

May you have a blessed Mother’s Day with your family and friends. If you are a mother, I hope you feel the love of your children like never before.

Happy Mother’s Day

My mother passed away a little over eleven years ago. I still miss her quite a bit, especially when I start planting perennials and annual flowers around this time of year. She had the “green thumb” in our family and taught me quite a bit about gardening. Of course, every Mother’s Day, I think about her and miss her.

I inherited Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) from my mother’s side of the family. My uncle, aunt, grandmother, and great-grandmother had it too. Mom was always concerned that I would let CMT discourage me and not accomplish much in life if I allowed the symptoms to become my focus. So she always, and I mean always, encouraged me to keep going and never give up.

I miss her encouragement. She would be proud to see that I took her advice and that I never gave up. A mother’s love for a child with CMT is one of the most important aspects of the child’s life.

With my mother being deceased, I won’t be celebrating the day, but I would like to wish all mothers a very blessed day. If your mother is still living, be sure to take the time to celebrate the day with her.