My BRAVE mom

My mom is my best friend.  We enjoy the same shows.  We like the same food.  We could even finish each other's thoughts.  I cannot begin to understand what it is like to watch your child find out they have cancer.  I know that as a parent I want to protect my children and I would do anything to help them.  You want to save them from the pain and if you could you would take it away from them.  She can't take this away, but she does the thing that she does best.  She serves me! My mom is the best example of service.  She has been to my house twice this week to weed in our yard.  She can't take away the cancer.  And she can't guard and protect me as she once did when I was a child, but she can serve with her heart and her hands. 

“The best antidote I know for worry is work. The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired. One of the great ironies of life is this: He or she who serves almost always benefits more than he or she who is served.”
― Gordon B. Hinckley, Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes

She is so worried.  She had a mammogram scheduled on the same day that they sent me to Huntsman Cancer Center.  The night we talked to my parents she cried that it should be her with the cancer and not me.  She was older and I was still so young.  She was in denial and just couldn't stop the worry.  I love this quote because I think it helps us remember that when we serve others it is often the person serving who benefits the most.  My mom needed to do something to help and it was so appreciated.  I don't need her to week the yard.  (Isn't that what husbands are for?) I need her to call after a long day at work; I need her to chat about the most recent episode of "Dancing with the Stars"; I need her to help me remember a family recipe; I need her to be my mom.  And she is the BRAVEST mom I know.