What Do You Do When You Don’t Know Where Your Mama Is?

The other day Mom looked at me with a childlike innocence, and in honest concern asked, “What do you do when you don’t know where your mama is?”

The question keeps haunting me.  It doesn’t go away.  Mom has been asking for her mama for years. So why does her question continue to echo in my thoughts now?

Then today it occurs to me, that the question isn’t just Mom’s question.  It’s mine too.  What do you do when you don’t know where your mama is?  The mama I could always depend on to sew me anything I needed, bring over a pot of homemade stew just when I needed it, listen longer than I wanted to talk, and care more than anyone.

I deeply love the mama who is still with me.  But, what do you do when you don’t know where your mama is?

I guess you grow up.  And you prayerfully try to be a mama to your own kids that will be remembered with tears of love someday. And you do the best you can to return love and comfort to the mama you have now, with a heart of gratefulness for the mama she was.