Mama Tried

I came along late in life for my mother. She had a married daughter (with a child of her own) and a son in the Air Force already out of the house, a teenager and a six year old. I came screaming into the world about three days before her 45th birthday. That's gotta be rough on anyone. A lot of people have said that having a child to chase at that age kept her young. I wonder that I didn't make her really old really quickly.
Actually Ma had been an acting mother for a lot longer than our family. Her father died when she was young, and she helped raise and take care her siblings. She told them stories, and took care of them. Even after she was married, she and Pop helped them out.
On top of everything else she was a teacher and motherfigure to a lot of other children.
I can't even pretend that I was a perfect child... I was lazy about schoolwork. I procrastinated, I still do. I would look for the easy way out. I still do. I am a thinker, but I never seem to think things all the way through. Ma has bailed me out of multiple jams, more than I care to think about.
I don't know if she ever had to do the same for my brothers and sisters... Don't care, truth be told. Everybody needs a helping hand sometimes. I just know what she did for me. I never seem to learn. I also know how lucky I've been to have what I have.
Happy Birthday, Ma. It's not enough to pay you back. It's never enough. It'll never be enough. Just know I love you, and I know how much you tried. I promise I'll keep trying too.