Once Upon A Time...

...There was a baby named Lillian Judith Bishop...'Judy' for short. From the very start she was super special. According to her own historical accounts, she began baking bread at the age of 5 and worked on her parents farm feeding animals, shovelling poo and running frantically from the giant pigs she didn't like very much. She grew and she grew and she grew until she was 10, then she stopped growing and never grew again :)
She did however get older. She met a super tall man named Howard Smith and married him in 1968 when she was 20 years old. Together, they moved away from Newfoundland and began livin it up in the grand metropolis of Toronto, Ontario. Judy began a lucrative career at a bank and was raking in the big bucks while climbing the corporate ladder. Many years later they decided to move back to Newfoundland so that they could be with their aging parents. Judy continued her career while taking care of her in-laws who lived in the house with her and her super tall husband, Howard. One day, she and her super tall husband, Howard decided to have a baby. They named her Melissa. She wasn't exactly what they were hoping for, so they decided to have another child. JOKES! (sorry Melissa!) They named their second child Kathy and seeing that they had achieved perfection, they ceased to have anymore children ;)
Judy decided that even though she was making the big dollars and enjoyed her job a lot, being with her kids was what she truly wanted to do so she took on the full, full, full-time position of stay at home mom of two and caretaker of her in-laws.
She did this job very well and balanced two babies and two old people and a super tall husband better than anyone on planet earth. She took care of everything from cooking to cleaning to sewing to volunteering and still made time for plenty of imagination and creativity. She judged colouring contests, played barbies, laboured over algebra problems and patiently endured the raging hormones and attitudes of two teenage girls.
There was not a lot of money, never a new car, no cable TV, lots of hand me down clothes and lots of homemade Christmas gifts but the girls didn't mind. They never wanted for anything, especially love. She taught her children the difference between 'needs' and 'wants'. She taught them about the importance of being a good friend and a Christ-like person. She taught them to have self confidence and that who you are is not defined by what you have, where you live or what you wear but by what you do and who you are in the eyes of the God who made you. She taught them how to have a healthy marriage by being an amazing, respectful and loving wife. She loved God first, her super tall husband, Howard second and her kids third...and strangely, her kids appreciated that because it made their family super healthy.
When the girls were old enough to leave the house and make their own choices, she graciously stepped aside and let them live their lives, confident in their abilities because she raised them so well.
Judy got older and older and OLDER AND OLDER...but she did not get slower, she only got better. Judy's children had children and Judy added 'amazing grandmother' to her long list of awesome attributes. Although her children and grandchildren live far from home, she makes every effort to have a relationship with her grand kids through daily check ins, letters, parcels, photos and frequent phone calls (sometimes twice a day!)
Everyone who has met Judy have one thing in common: They are better for it.

Happy Mother's Day, Judy. I am a lucky, lucky mom to have had a mom like you.

The End