My son called the other day. I hadn’t spoken to him since this past Saturday when we all attended his school’s annual family day picnic. He was so sweet. I loved listening to him talk. Thomas is speech impaired but many times it’s not too difficult to understand him. Curse words for whatever reason come out crystal clear and there is no misunderstanding ;). Since Thomas doesn’t live at home I love when he calls us. And this past phone call I thoroughly enjoyed hearing him just say, “Mom…” That word that I’ve heard more or less for the past 17-18 years. There have been variations, “Mama, Mommy, Mom, Ma, Mo-oooom!!” Every mother has heard them all and then some. Sometimes accompanied by laughter, sometimes crying; the best times are when there’s excitement to be had like good news.
Today Alyssa texted me, “Guess what?” That was pretty cool. She had exciting news about an article she wrote last year and this year her teacher submitted the article to a journalism contest. Alyssa has a good chance of winning according to her journalism teacher. If she wins at the citywide level she’ll then be competing at the state wide level. Very exciting news and I’m glad she took the time out of her day to share that with me.
“Mom…” That’s how my son addresses me. With a pause after saying Mom. When he was talking to me the other night I felt so blessed to be called “Mom” by this young man. After all we’ve been through especially the past 4 years with him being unable to continue living at home. I think of the time before things became tough. We were having a nice time with Thomas. He was stable on his meds, I was thrilled with his school and their staff, and Thomas was involved with a recreation program run by an agency that specializes in special needs. Their staff is also amazing. Oh and we had a woman coming to the house a few times during the week who worked with Thomas doing life skills such as walking to the store and buying small things and walking around the neighborhood, to the park, etc… Life was good and it was predictable which was nice. Its funny though because I don’t recall many conversations between Thomas and I during that time. I remember almost all of our conversations these days mainly because they’re not full of distractions or other people interrupting us. It’s just him and I on the phone. And its nice. “Mom…”
Menay O; mom to 4, Christian and thrift shopper on the side... 