I was very impressed with the excerpts from the movie “Men Of Honor” and the discussion on significant people in our lives. I am going to rent that movie this weekend.

One of my most significant people in my life was my mother. I remember as a young child, around pre-school age between 3 and 5 years old, delighting in helping my mother with simple chores about the house. One of my favorite jobs was sprinkling the clothes with water to prepare them for ironing. This was a weekly task that I could help my mother with. She and I would gather the clothes off the clothes line. I was her runner taking smaller items and proudly depositing them in the clothes hamper. One my most wonderful memories is running up and down through rows of clean sheets. The smells of clean sun dried clothes, the delight of hiding and playing in those white cotton waves and the pride I felt in being my mothers trusted helper live vividly in my heart and mind. Once we had gathered all the clothes off the line we would lay the clothes in even piles on our green Formica kitchen table. I had my pile and my mother had hers and we would share a bowl of water. We would dip our fingers into the water and sprinkle the clothes by flicking our wet fingers at them. It was kind of a pre-blessing to the ironing that would follow the next day. Then we would roll up the clothes and place them in a big plastic bag that looked like a pillow case with a zipper on one side. It was pale yellow and translucent. I loved being my mothers helper. We worked side by side in relative silence but there was no discomfort in our silence. There was comfort and belonging in knowing that I was her special helper. She validated my independence, built my self-esteem and I felt the comfort of her love.