One Mother's Dream

When I close my eyes and think about a mother’s love, the first memories that come to my mind are my mother’s rituals in caring for my two brothers and me when we were sick.

The main stays for our mother’s sick day love were ginger ale, saltine crackers, and chicken-and-rice soup. My brother, Tim, reminded me years ago after her death of the small kindness of ice chipped from cubes by hand with a spoon.

In case of a bad cough or cold, our mom fastened a Vicks Vapo-Rub poultice to our PJ’s and served up a cough elixir of few sips of bourbon mixed with sugar. When – God forbid – we had the throw-up bug, she always stood by ready with cool wet cloth to hold to our head, a glass of water to rinse our mouth, and hand on the lever to flush as needed.

As a footnote, I do remember two things about our mom's sick day rituals that I did not enjoy. No matter how sick we were, we always got a full scrubbing before going to the doctor. I say “full”, but that didn’t include washing our hair. Our mom believed that washing hair when sick could cause a “chill” that could make us sicker. I didn’t believe that part about the hair. I always felt sicker with dirty hair.

Our parents provided a comfortable life for me and my brothers, but we didn’t take many vacations and had few extras. Yet, I don’t recall a single time when my parents couldn't afford to take us to the doctor.

So when I had my two children, I readily adopted all of my mother’s sick day rituals, except the prohibition against hair washing. And, because we were blessed with sufficient resources, there was never a time when we were unable to afford to take them to the doctor.

On this Mother’s Day in America, moms of nine million children greeted the day knowing that they can’t afford to take their children to the doctor, hoping against hope that they will stay well.

We pray that they do stay well and that this Mother’s Day brings us closer to a time when every mother can rest assured that her children will get the care they need.

Moms, join me in making this dream a reality. It won’t happen if we don’t demand it.