Happy Mother's Day!

4:58 PM

I have to say, that this Mother's Day I have been blessed. My husband went over and above to make me feel special, and to help the girls celebrate with me. There were a lot of hugs and kisses, gifts and smiles. It was a wonderful day...

Here are my super duper cutie patooties today at church....


and my heart melts....I don't deserve these two...


an indescribable love...


Both of the girls came to me at church today, each with a rose....


A wonderful lunch, a splendid nap, and then a surprise call from Nana Judy and Bapa Ron that they were going to stop by on their way home from visiting Aunt Holly and Uncle Jon. We wanted to go out to a nice sit down place, but the 2 of those here in our town were overflowing with people who had the same idea...oh well, we made the best of it!


And, since we hadn't planned on seeing either Nana today, we made up a little video to share with them both, since we just love them soooo much!



The best thing about today, was that my mother and grandma were in a feature story in their local newspaper. My mom entered a letter be published with others for their annual "Mother's Day Tribute", but I guess hers stood out, and the paper decided to do a feature story on them both. I can't access the photo from the Internet, but mom is sending me a copy in the mail! Read and enjoy! (I took out last names and stuff...)

Honoring mom through writing

— Vicki P. smiled and began singing softly Wednesday — her 80th birthday — as she sat in her wheelchair at the L. Health Center in WS.

“She loves to sing,” explained one of her daughters, Dianne , who had brought four “happy birthday” helium-filled balloons and tied them to the wheelchair. “She loves music. She and Dad used to go dancing at the Avalon Ballroom.”
Glenn P. died in 2001, three months after he and Vicki celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

Vicki P. has four children, eight grandchildren and six great-granddaughters.

And for the past eight years, she has had Alzheimer’s disease.

That was a major reason why Dianne wrote about her mother, after the Tribune invited readers to help celebrate Mother’s Day through essays on what makes or made their moms special.

Dianne’s essay appears on page A1. Other essays appear below. And all of the essays submitted appear on the Tribune’s Web site, www.lacrossetribune.com.

“I wrote about my mother because I wanted to honor her in her final stages of her disease,” Dianne said Wednesday. “My journey with her has spanned eight years now and it is, as they say, ‘the long goodbye.’ Writing about her is a way for me to process my feelings in this grieving process.

“I want the world to know her as she was, a kind and gentle woman who would do anything for anyone,” Dianne said.

Vicki P. was raised in La Crosse, graduated from Logan High School and was the high school band’s majorette, Dianne said.

“She worked retail for many years (in places such as Ben Franklin Crafts), but her priority was her family and their daily needs,” Dianne said.

Dianne herself is a teacher assistant in the O. School District, who with husband Craig has two children, Josh and Jennisa.

Glenn P. used to say she and her mother acted more like sisters than mother-daughter, Dianne said.

“What a great compliment,” she said.

“We used to talk every day, and our communicating over recent years has greatly diminished due to her disease,” Dianne said.

“A touch, a hug, holding her hand, whispers of ‘I love you’ seems to be all that is left to let her know I am still here for her.”

Here is the letter my mother sent into the paper that was then published...

When did I realize how very fortunate I am to be blessed in life with such a wonderful mother?

I’m sure that I felt it growing up in a warm and loving home with clean clothes and homemade meals. My mother did all the things a mom does — the things we often take for granted when we are growing up.

However, it wasn’t until I became a young wife and mother for myself that I truly realized that not only was my mother a special person in my life, but she had also become my best friend. Someone I could talk to about anything, someone I could depend on, someone I could trust ... my new best friend.

She showed me how to be a good wife and mother by her example. She taught me how to sacrifice and put others’ needs before my own. She showed me that the joy one receives from helping others far outweighs the selfishness of this world.

Her kind and gentle spirit has touched many people in her lifetime. She lived her faith. We have shared laughter and tears, joy and disappointments, life and death. We have shared love. We have shared our “souls.”

To this very day, I never leave her side without a kiss and telling her how very much I love her. Does she really hear it ... does she really understand ... it is a question I have to ask myself every time I leave her.

My mother is in the last stages of Alzheimer’s, so I will never really know. But what I do know is that she has given me a lifetime of cherished memories. She has left a legacy � she has left her “heart” print on my life.

Dedicated to my mother, Vicki P.

— Dianne P.

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