The Ben and Evelyn Duell Family (2011)
Back: Doug(1), David(5), Fred(2), Ben(15), Daniel(9)
Middle: Marilyn(6), Jane(10), Dad, Sharon(7), Lori(12)
Front: Sandi(14), Lianne(8), Chris(4), Janette(11), Elise(3), Linda(13)
In case you don't know me well, these are my siblings and my dad. (I'm #14 - still not sure if I had a name growing up, or if I was just #14). I have nine sisters and five brothers, all from one mom (and dad). No, we're not Catholic, nor Mormon. My parents didn't believe in birth control (obviously) and they were blessed with incredible fertility (most of us are between 11 and 18 months apart in age). My dad's a farmer and my mom stayed home with us until we were all in school. Then she taught 4th grade for almost 20 years!
As much as I love this picture and all the people in it, it pains me to know that it isn't complete. It's the first family picture we've taken in over seven years. The last one was taken a few weeks before my mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Three and a half months later (seven years ago today), she met Jesus face to face.
Mother's Day comes every year and a few days later, the 11th of May. I find myself filled with incredible emotions during these days. I love celebrating the gift of motherhood and the amazing girl I get to call my daughter. I'm overwhelmed with gratitude and love and I treasure the moments I have with her. I also feel myself turning inward emotionally, unable to find words for my feelings and wondering how I've been able to go on year after year without my own mother. I miss her so much, the sound of her voice, her soft cheeks that touched mine when I hugged her, her laugh, and especially having someone call me a "scrounge", which felt very loving even though I was being reprimanded (usually for taking the center out of a freshly-baked cinnamon roll)! I can't find words in any language to describe the roller-coaster of emotions in my heart, so I just sit, and I stare, and I cry, and I laugh, and I remember, and I wonder, and then I pray and I thank God for the time I had with her and for the time I have with my own daughter.
At the beginning of April, all fifteen children were able to make it home to celebrate my dad's 80th birthday. The older we get, the more I see the physical resemblance of my mother in the faces of my sisters and even my brothers. Even their mannerisms sometimes remind me of her. She left us so much more than physical characteristics and mannerisms, though. Legacy is defined as "something handed down or receieved from an ancestor or a predecessor or from the past". The "something" that she handed down cannot be reduced to mere words. One can see her legacy in the lives of the children she raised and in the way they love others. The love she passed down to us is far greater than any item I could physically hold. What an amazing woman she was. I'm so grateful that I still catch glimpses of her when I'm surrounded by my siblings.
"Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her; Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."
