A Mother's Love

My wife is not a demonstrative person. You are never sure of how she feels about something until it boils over, then she may say more than she intended to say. Regardless, she is a very loving person and extremely loyal. These are characteristics that not everyone possess. In the late 90's our son Geoff joined the Navy, and after basic left for an assignment in Japan. He was to spend his entire tour in Japan and saw some sea duty on the Carrier Independence and Kitty Hawk. This story isn't about Geoff however, it is about his mother's love.

One day not long after Geoff was stationed in Japan Terry and I were frequenting some flea markets in town. This is one of our hobbies, a little shopping where there may be old stuff that causes us to reminisce about time gone by. As we were walking down an aisle she spotted a small globe of the world. It was a bank. One of those banks from the 50's or 60's with a little slot in the top and a lithograph of the world on the body. It was made of stamped metal. You could pick out countries and some large cities were even named. The globe was perhaps 6" in diameter. I think it was $.50 or some such price. Terry bought it. It still sits on a log shelf under the eaves of our home in our bedroom. In fact, I now look at it every morning when I wake up and it reminds me of this story.

You see, the reason Terry bought the globe was she could look at it, examine it and see where Japan was in relation to the United States. When Geoff's fleet was send to the middle east about the time of the first gulf war Terry could see where Dubai was, or Saudi Arabia. It kept her in touch with where her son was in the world while he was away from home. Terry believes in prayer, and I'm sure when she looked at that globe and found where Geoff was in this old world of ours she also murmured a prayer of safe return. A mother's love has many methods of expression.