There was very little my Mom didn’t do with style (her own unique style). She did it with feeling, romance, and heart and living out her faith. The circumstances of her passing just after the amazing week of our family reunion has left me with little doubt that she knew something we didn’t. I couldn’t help feeling that she knew her time had come and God had heard her heart’s cries to enjoy her whole family together once again (a dream come true for her), and to leave this world quickly.
When I think of my mother…
these are some of the words and images that come to mind:
- Coke a Cola at Christmas
- Zipping off to another women’s Bible class on her Honda 70.
- Sitting in the shade of banana trees with the people she loved and who loved her so.
- Amp Condi, Missus Blaus
- Dorito Corn Chips
- Her love of blue… royal blue, mostly any blue that reminded her of Dad’s perty blue eyes.
- Mission Aviation Fellowship (Mom had this love-trepidation response that initiated many Ju-Yesu exclamations/prayers and a few screams)
- Kerosene operated refrigerators
- Maytag washing machines (operated by a Brigs-n-Straton motor)
- Earthquakes (her reactions almost got her killed on more than one occasion)
- Sunday evening meal – popcorn and milo (hot chocolate)
- Dancing a jig (her response to any good news about her family)
- "My LAND a LIVIN" …
- She loved any kind of arch, especially ones covered with ivy or flowers. (M & D said their wedding vows under one)
Ju-Yesu
(Mom’s own unique flare prayer – Jesus Christ in Chinese. Nothing sacrilegious about it.)
Ju-Yesu - was:
- Mom’s first love.
- on the tip of her tongue
- the her reason for her hope
- Mom’s honor guard
- her anchor, her fortress
- her bridge over troubled waters
- her shelter in the time of storm.
Mom’s opinions have always had a significant influence on my choices and decisions. Mom was an aspiring matchmaker and a romantic in a class all her own. It was her letter of recommendation that prompted me to begin writing a cute blue-eyed Canadian farm girl named Iris Scott. I married her and so we joke about our marriage being ‘arranged’. Mom accepts little personal credit for her introduction and rather says it was divinely arranged.
Regarding our spouses, Mom and Dad's conviction has always been “if you love them, we will too”. Mom and Dad never took sides.
Mom and I shared a deeply emotional love for all things New Guinea. There seemed to be no holds barred if I was discovering, experiencing or exploring the wonders of my country of birth and Mom and Dad’s mission field. I do not recall any motherly exhortation, lectures or limits on my cross-cultural discoveries. I used an untold number of boxes of matches. Lighting fires was a fundamental of being a boy in New Guinea but Mom never seemed concerned because she new my little PNG friends had done their fire safe education and I was a good observer. As long as we had water for bathing available Mom never seemed the least bit concerned when I’d come home smelling of smokey bush fires and my feet muddy and grass stained.
I will always treasure these memories of my mother.
Some of mom’s motherly exhortations: She’d often stop herself after saying something and remark, “Oh dear, I’m doing a mommy again aren’t I ?!.”
- Comb your hair or no girl will ever give you a second look. (I took her very seriously on this point.)
- You better learn to write neater than that or no employer will ever hire you.
- You can play in the rain all you want, after the lightning has stopped.
My mom was a woman of courage, a pioneer, and a teacher. Perhaps most important of all she was a woman known for her deep devotion.
She lived a life of devotion; first to her Lord and savior, second to her man (dad), and thirdly to her 4 children and later to her grand- and great-grands. Of all the mothers I knew growing up I honestly don’t think any other came close to my mom in her level of devotion, support, and commitment to her brood of four.
It was with my mom that I first knelt beside the bottom bunk in the boy’s bedroom at the age of 8 to put my trust in the Lord.
To my knowledge she placed only one condition on what she and where she went. “If Jesus goes with me…”
This was candidly illustrated one day when we were ready to negotiate another particularly scary bridge. Mom, announced I am getting out and walking across because Jesus just got out of the vehicle, and the only reason I would stay in and go across was if Jesus went with me."
Some months after Mom and Dad’s last visit to NZ I sent mom an email telling her that she was my greatest hero. She responded that “That was the greatest complement anybody has ever given me.”
Mom, you are my greatest hero…
You conquered, you overcame, you kept running to the finish, you finished strong! We will always be thankful, be blessed, and always be proud to have had you for our mother!
While mom was well known for her gift and love for writing, and her own dramatic, expressive way of recording her account of happenings, it would be true that any record or account of her own doings and achievements were very much an understatement of the actual.
Over the last several years her email correspondence was often concluded with the phrase “Mom tasol” or (just mom).
To be sure mom’s version of what qualified as being a success in life was quite different than most. In a book I recently read titled “Making Life Rich Without Money” by Phil Gallaway the author’s description of success was as follows: “I will consider myself a success when I have made others home-sick for heaven.”
Well that fits my mother, fearful of a medically protracted painful death it’s true, but totally unafraid of dying. For her death had been conquered, it had no sting for her. She welcomed her promotion to heaven.
Jesus consoled his disciples that… I go to prepare a place (a home) for you. It is my suspicion that as God was putting the finishing touches on our home in heaven, he knew that it would not be complete without mom’s personal touch, so he called her home when he did.
Having had twins herself, Mom was in rapturous expectation when my wife Iris and I discovered we were expecting twins. While I will have to wait to re-unite with mom, it does my heart good to know she is with our identical twin girls Kate and Amber. They would have been 14yrs old this year. I’m sure the three of them, will be giggling and laughing and dancing a jig around God’s throne. Mom has indeed made me and I know many others just that much more home sick for heaven.
I love you mom, we all love you, Iris, Amy, Scott, Ariana and Kent… more than words can tell.
Larry Tasol!!
You have your mother's gift of expressing herself effectively and well with words, Larry. What a wonderful tribute!
ReplyDeleteRecently I began working on manuscript for my next book. Your dear mother will be featured in it quite a bit. May God give the comfort that you need in our great loss. ...
ReplyDeleteHere is my e-mail address. chamcam43@hotmail.com. When it is convenient for you, I will appreciate so much hearing from you some details of what happened and when. I have many stories that I can share with you that might be interesting for you. Our three children also are expressing great sorry for you loss. They loved Aunt Ruth.
I knew your mother, as Ruth, when she was 12 and I was 10. I can say that she has been like a loving sister to me ever since. We shared a room together in College. I was deeply shocked to hear the sad news of her sudden passing. She was always so strong, so brave, so cheerful and fun. I hurt with you and your family in your loss.
FROM: Claudine Chamberlin (Fellow pioneer missionaries in New Guinea)