What Mother's Day Means To Me

This Mother's Day, we asked some members of the CBS DFW family to reflect on what the day means to them.

My mother always said she wanted 16 kids.

But how she raised just the five of us with limited help still stupefies me.

My dad left when I was ten years old, one of the most amicable divorces my friends' families had ever seen.

My dad would visit every Saturday; we'd spend weekends at his house often; and through my pre-college years we'd all share Christmas Day together.

My mother never said an ill word about my father.

Through her example, she taught me faith, forgiveness, and love love love.

I often tell my friends and family that I believe God gave me an extra dose of love for people--that my heart is often so full, it spills out my eyes.

I credit my mom for much of that.

But memories of my mother are far from perfect.

I'll never forget one particular visit to my home in Kentucky.

She was turning 51. I noticed she was limping. Her hands were trembling.  She kept saying she thought she "pinched a nerve."  I called the chiropractor who lived behind us, who insisted she see a neurologist right away.

She was diagnosed with Parkinson's shortly thereafter and died 9 years later.

While my mother's final years were not pretty ones, the way she embraced life before she got sick is exactly how I live today. It's also what I've tried to model for my own children.

Every laugh and adventure with my kids, particularly with my travel-loving daughter, Nicole, is an absolute joy fest for me.

I feel in the crazily close connection I have with her, I've been given a second chance at a mother-daughter relationship cut too short.

So on this Mother's Day, I say thanks to the carefree, fun-loving, faithful woman at my core: my mother, Marilyn.

Happy Mother's Day!

--Tracy