My Mother's Hands

Have you every really sat and looked at an older person's hands?  I mean really looked at them and thought about what those hands have done and helped do during that person's life?  A number of years ago, I sat looking at my Mom's hands and realized they looked like the hands of my great-grandmother, her grandmother.  As a child, our Great-Grandma Miller would come for Sunday dinner or for Sunday car rides.  During those times in the car, I remember looking at her hands, touching the brown age stops and asking her about them.  I don't recall what she told me, but I do remember what her hands looked like.  So when I looked at my own mother's hands and saw the hands of my great-grandmother.....I told her how much her hands reminded me of Great Grandma Miller.  

During my recent visit to Ohio to see my Mom, I began thinking about my Mom's hands and all they have accomplished over the years.  As the oldest child in her own family, I am sure those hands helped with her four brothers.  At the age of seventeen, her baby sister Ellen was born.  My mom helped raise Ellen, so her hands became part of Ellen's life as well.  Her hands were there to teach a little sister things she needed to learn; to hold and love her as well.  My Mom's hands held the hand of a shy young man who was so flustered the first time he asked her out, he invited her to the Father and Son banquet when he meant the Junior and Senior banquet.  Her hands worked as this young man went off to war to help support the war effort.  And held his hands again when he came home on a two week leave and ask her to marry him before he went back.  Many years have past and still these hands hold the hand of that man.  These hands have borne and raised six children; five daughters and a son.  They have driven tractors, birthed piglets, cared for chickens, gardened, cooked, sewed clothing and quilts, along with so many other things in her lifetime.  Now, there isn't a lot these hands can do without help, yet there is still one thing they do and do well.  With her hands, my mother blesses her family; she can still pray and hold your hand.  And that is the greatest thing these hands have ever or will ever do. 

posted by Sarah