Hi, this is Joni Eareckson Tada and I love mothers!
But I guess you could tell that by the last time we met … I love any mother, any age, and with Mother’s Day coming up this weekend, we dug way back in the archives to find some old interviews I did with my mother, Lindy Eareckson. She shares some memories that to this day I still recall … so listen in …
Joni: When I used to think of Mother’s Day, I used to think of a soft, feminine, round, homey types of woman with pink, smooth skin and you’re not like that: you’re tall, you’re handsome, you got strong hands, you are a pioneer type. How old are you?
Lindy: Seventy-seven, Jon.
Joni: Seventy-seven?
Lindy: Yeah, a ripe old 77!
Joni: You don’t look 77.
Lindy: Thank you. I try to keep up with you girls.
Joni: It’s not often that I get you to sit in front of a microphone with me and Mother’s Day is coming up fast. What do you think is most special about being a mom?
Lindy: I don’t know what is so special about being a mom, but I know that all mothers are special ... in some way each one their own. As I think of my mother, oh I thought Mother’s Day was the most beautiful day of the year just because the thought of a mother is beautiful, don’t you think so?
Joni: Oh, yes, yes. Well, I’m looking at you… beautiful mother that you are.
Lindy: No, but I sort of have the same feeling from you girls – all four of you – that I had for my mother. I feel that to you I am something very, very special, because I am a mother. Mother to me just meant… the world…
Joni: …somebody that takes care of you … somebody who loves you … gives great hugs.
Lindy: Yes, even though they don’t pick you up and hold you every minute of the day, you know they are there, you know they care, you know that she loves you.
Joni: And nobody fixes a pork roast with kale and potatoes like you.
Lindy: Oh, I know that plenty of mothers do much more than that!
Joni: Mom, you told me this neat story last night. You and I were talking about memories and I remember as a little girl around Mother’s Day going over to grandmother's house, your mom. And grandmother had beautiful, big, thick, lush grapes—a big grape arbor—all around the side of her house and we used to pick grapes and tell us what you did with them. I think that is so neat.
Lindy: Well, we used to pick the grapes to make grape juice and that meant a lot of good work. We would pick the grapes and after washing them, put them in the pot and boiled them until the skin fell off. Then drained the juice into jars and of course, put them up that way and have grape juice for almost the whole winter.
Joni: I remember the times going over to grandmom’s house in the springtime and enjoying wonderful grape juice and I don’t know, I always thought it was Welch’s! Now I learned it was you the whole time! When you told me the story and talked about how you used to press the grapes and strain them hard … when I think of grapes and straining them and pressing them, you have been through that in your life. You’ve been pressed, you’ve been pushed up against the sieve and what’s been poured out of your life I think has been a real “drink offering” to not only our family—to not only me personally all those years you helped me in the hospital—but to thousands, mom. Happy Mother’s Day!
Lindy: Thank you, dear one. Happy Daughter’s Day on Mother’s Day! Bye, bye now.
Joni: Bye, bye!
Well, friend, if you’d like to see a photo of this strong, handsome, pioneer-like woman whom I described earlier, then you’ve just got to go to my radio page at joniandfriends.org when we’re finished here. Plus, I posted a video of my mother singing her favorite hymn. Do you have any favorite mother memories? Tell me about it at joniandfriends.org, would you? I’d love to hear from you, because there’s no one quite like a mother!
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 91376
© Joni and Friends