M-O-T-H-E-R. She who, I just learned, typically devoted 90 minutes of her day just to you. That's why she deserves a bunch of flowers and a nice phone call tomorrow, if nothing else. And you let her talk as long as she wants, dammit.
After her high school graduation my mom joined the Navy, where she met and later married my dad. Eleven months later, an angelic baby named "me" was born and thus began her nearly 30-year run of raising and eventually evicting her three sons.
Not surprisingly, we were a handful but by 1976 our baby was almost a teenager and mom waxed nostalgic about her high school experiences as an award winning artist. She decided to explore the exciting new world of acrylic paints, and over the course of I forget how many days/weeks she patiently labored over an atmospheric landscape painting that she gifted to dad. The unnamed landscape hung proudly in their home ever since.
Oddly, mom never again picked up a brush (except to paint walls) and would go years between a bit of dabbling with a sketching pencil. Nevertheless, it was her example and encouragement that ultimately led me to my own quest at artmaking.
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Our beloved mother passed away late last year and recently she was interred in the national cemetery next to our father. But it may surprise you to learn that she was the war veteran who earned them that privilege; dad rode in on her coattails. We her sons of course knew about her service, but only in the last year or so did we come to realize how extraordinary it was.
I'll tell you what, if you need someone's assistance at the VA or any military bureaucracy to cut through some red tape, find any woman on their staff and tell her your mother was a Korean War Veteran. Without exception, they will bend over backwards to help and unabashedly will tell you how they owe so much to women like mom, who broke ground and paved they way for their careers in the military. That is humbling and gratifying.
If you've never attended one, a military funeral is a dignified and wrenching ceremony filled with symbolism and respectfully conducted by an solemn honor guard. We all know the opening strains of "Taps" but in no way does that prepare you for the upwelling of emotions and tears it cues in such a setting. As the ceremony concluded, I was presented the flag by a Commander as he intoned, "on behalf of the President of the United States, the US Navy and a grateful Nation..."
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I'm now custodian of that flag and the aforementioned landscape painting until both pass down to our family's young generation. Two boys and fortunately we have two flags. And two of mom's artworks because in addition to the landscape we also have the high school artwork for which she won the regional award.
I have long perceived that landscape as a seminal work for me even though I did not paint it, because of what it inspired me to try. And so today as we celebrate mothers — but mostly in honor of her life, I present this fine work by Mary Ellen Campbell. Thanks Mom, for everything. Wish I could phone you and say so.
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