Thoughts on Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day has rushed toward us and away. Are we ready to remember, to share memories? We have had great mothers and it is still time to think of them.

My dear Ozark Mom, with only a fourth-grade education and a heavy prosthetic leg that she had to drag around, was loved by everyone who met her. She encouraged my explorations in the house through books and in the wide outdoors everywhere. We played games together as we worked, and she introduced me to jigsaw puzzles — no baby big-piece puzzles, but many-piece adult puzzles. She also was my Brownie leader, and one year she was elected president of my grade school’s PTA.

I want to tell you about another special “mom,” Helen Hady Stockbridge Bush. I first remember Helen and me in her yard. We played with some balsa wood airplanes that could be shot into the air and then glide in graceful flight and land (sometimes). She had four dogs, a couple of cats and a husband, Ray, and their son. Helen worked for my grandfather and became a friend of my mom.

Eventually I joined my grandfather living with the Bush family. Helen searched for a boarding school for me. She landed at Loretto Academy in Kansas City, such a lucky choice for me. Helen always had many animals and, though her house was small with only two bedrooms, she ended up with six court children. When I was home from school, I slept in the living room or on the back porch (summertime) or shared a bed with a couple of small girls. Then Helen and Ray found a four-acre property with a large old house in Raytown. The household expanded rapidly.

Helen got involved with Wayside Waifs, an animal rescue in Kansas City. Since she had four acres of land, a big house and other ramshackle structures and an even bigger heart, her place became one of the places to keep the animals. There were many cats, quite a few dogs, and she alone cared for them all and had a name for each one.

Even now, long after her death, I do hope she is somewhere surrounded by the dear animals and people she cared for and is laughing as they give her critter kisses and human hugs. Helen was the epitome of mother to all who came to her door.