Happy Mother’s Day to all moms!

I thought the following poem would make be a nice complement to Mother’s Day weekend. I don’t know who the author is, but my grandma wrote it out in her unique handwriting as she did with a number of poems and short stories. She would mail them to me or give them to me when I came to visit. I loved getting the letters in the mail! I credit this as one of the many things that gave me a love for literature and reading.

My grandma died over a decade ago, but I still have many of her handwritten letters-including this one. Although most moms and grandmoms don’t have these daily responsibilities, it is a testament to the hard work of all mothers.

In Grandmother’s Day (author unknown)

Grandmother, on a winter’s day:

milked the cow,

slopped the hogs,

saddled the mule and got the children off to school

Did a washing, mopped the floors, washed the windows and did some chores,

Cooked a dish of home-dried fruit, pressed her husband’s Sunday suit,

Swept the parlor, made the beds, baked a dozen loaves of bread, 

Split some firewood and lugged it in, enough to fill the kitchen bin

Cleaned the lamps and put in oil, stewed some apples she thought would spoil

Churned some butter, baked a cake and then exclaimed,

“For goodness sake, the calves are out of their pen again,”

and went out and chased them in,

Gathered the eggs and locked the stable, back to the house and set the table

Cooked a supper that was delicious, and afterwards washed all the dishes,

Fed the cat, sprinkled the clothes, mended a basket full of hose, then opened the organ and began to play,

“When you come to the end of a perfect day.”