Reflections on My Mom for Mother’s Day

Probably the hardest thing to write about when posting a story, is something about yourself. After 40 years in broadcasting, I still find sharing something personal as one of the hardest things to do.

It's Mother's Day and hopefully you are all spending sometime with your Mom's today.

My Mom, MaryAnn Chille passed away on my birthday May 26th almost two years ago. Today memories of my Mom flood my mind. She was beautiful, caring, totally unselfish, never thought of herself, only her kids, her husband, her parents, her sister, her friends.

She had a smile that would brighten the cloudiest day, and she could spread warmth with just a quick hello, or a touch of her hand. She helped raise 4 kids, in addition to me, my brother Mike and sisters Elizabeth and Annmarie.

Her life was not easy, she had a number of health and emotional issues to deal with, but she was one hell of a woman, and she would rally each time.

She was bed ridden the last few years of her life because of problems with her legs...the same legs that walked us to school, or trick or treating, or up and down stairs on Christmas Eve when we were too excited to stay in our beds.

But we as a family gathered around her. My Dad hired aides so that she could continue to live with family, my sister Ann and her husband Al and their kids opened their home for her to stay in the her last years with us, my sister Elizabeth and family who visited her everyday, my brother Mike who would keep her in good spirits, and her aides, Wilhelmina, Sallie, Alma, Bertha helping to care for her as needed.

When she passed, she left this world peacefully, at 1:30 in the morning with her family around her, my family all asking me if I felt badly because she died on my birthday? I didn't, and at her wake a woman dressed in white, who I didn't know, and oddly enough no one else saw, came up to me and said this..."You are Joe, the oldest of the four children?" I said yes, and she added "your Mother died on your birthday?" I nodded...she continued..."Don't feel, bad, every year as you celebrate your birthday, put two candles on your cake, one for you, and one for your Mom's birthday in Heaven."

Happy Mother's Day Mom...I miss you.