Happy birthday, Memaw!

We celebrated my mom's 65th birthday Friday night at...

Cotton Patch!

Anyone who knows my mom knows how much she loves Cotton Patch Cafe. She rarely cooks for herself and enjoys eating out, but she doesn't enjoy the poor service she often gets when she's dining alone. At Cotton Patch, though, she's always welcomed warmly and never rushed through her meal. Now that she's been frequenting this particular restaurant for several years, the staff greets her by name and makes sure her glass of unsweetened tea is waiting for her at her table.

Since she eats there almost daily, we always offer to take her somewhere else for special occasions. But wouldn't you know it, she always requests Cotton Patch!

For her birthday song, Mom requested the "short version."

After dinner we came back to our house for cards, presents and cake.



It was fun to celebrate this "big" birthday with her, and it was special (as always) to see the VIP treatment she gets at Cotton Patch. What's funny is that we took her to dinner, but the manager paid for her meal. (Even funnier is that Mom told us the manager on duty earlier in the day had treated her to lunch, too!)

It's incredible how many people show kindness to my mom. She leaves her apartment for dialysis around 4:30 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Not too long ago, she found out that her upstairs neighbor—a man who also gets up early—watches her get into her car and drive off. His wife told Mom that he's faithful to look out the window on those dialysis mornings to make sure she's OK.

And then there's her newspaper delivery person. For several months now, her paperboy has been putting the newspaper bag on her doorknob, which is a huge help since her bad back has limited her mobility. Not too long ago, she ran into the young man and thanked him for putting her paper on the door. The guy said he had spotted her really struggling to pick up her paper with a grabber one morning. Once he realized how hard it was for her to bend over, he started making the paper easier for her to reach.

Of course, our church family does a wonderful job taking care of her—and all of us! For example, Mom was in a fender bender one Sunday after church, and it just so happened to be a Sunday when we were out of town. Some friends from church stopped at the accident site and stayed with her, later following her to Firestone to replace her tire. Others stopped to make sure she was OK. Meanwhile, we were completely unaware that she'd been in a wreck until much later that night!

All of these acts of kindness are heartwarming, but in my mom's case, they are completely appropriate and deserved. She has spent her whole life helping others, from all the children who were blessed to pass through her kindergarten class to my dad who faced a lifetime of health challenges. Now that she is the one who needs a hand, there are many out there who are willing to offer her one.

My mom's devotion to my father and the way she took care of his countless physical struggles gave me a shining example of what a wife should be. I am far from the patient, selfless woman my mom is, but because of her, I know firsthand the type of person I will always strive to be.