May was always a special time in my boyhood family. Our mother’s birthday was on May 8 and Mother’s Day was a few days away — sometimes on the same day.

As kids we couldn’t afford anything remarkable for Mom’s birthday and Mother’s Day, but I remember buying her cards for one day or the other at the dime store on Main Street. My younger siblings remembered her in their own ways on those special days.

As a boy I never considered buying flowers for anyone, especially a female. The idea was just not in my brain’s software design. High school proms changed that.

In the spring of 1966, I was a senior in high school and made a trip to the flower store to buy a corsage for my prom date. A point-of-sale poster reminded me that Mother’s Day was coming soon and I was prompted to buy a corsage for my mother.

After all, I had a part-time job and a little change in my pocket. Progressing into manhood in one act of generosity, I bought flowers for two women with one purchase.

When I presented the corsage to my mother she was appreciative but I noted something a little strange in her reaction. It was nearly imperceptible. An inexperienced young man, I was unable to determine what might be wrong. So as an inexperienced young man I did what we men are prone to do: I ignored it.

A few years later my cousin’s wife confided that my mother had told her about that corsage. Mom said it was the first time anyone had given her a flower since her wedding 21 years earlier. The reaction that I ignored in 1966 was my mother choking up with emotion. I got a lump in my throat when I realized how much that corsage meant to my mother.

Thereafter I made sure my mother was fondly remembered every Mother’s Day. My siblings did the same.

The awareness of my mother’s reaction stuck with me. When I married, I made a commitment that my wife would receive flowers on important days and I remain committed today. No wife or mother should go without a flower for 21 years.

Memories like this abound at this time of year. My mother was widowed at the age of 65 and lived a full and active life until the end. She passed away in November 2018 at the age of 91.

Our mother was one of 12 children raised by immigrant parents in a depression-era farm home. She learned English in country school and worked hard alongside her siblings in her family’s truck garden. Her education ended after eighth grade when her parents hired her out to an area farm family as a “hired girl.”

The challenges of Mom’s childhood did not end when she came of age. She was 18 when she married my father who shipped out for military service in Europe a few weeks after the wedding.

When Dad returned to the States in 1946 they established a household and soon enough I appeared. About 30 months later she gave birth to another son who died shortly after birth. Mom never got over that loss. She spoke of little brother Duane often.

Five more babies came along in the next 12 years and six years later my father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. Mom cleaned houses, babysat, helped cook meals for a local service club and sewed quilts to supplement her and Dad’s Social Security income. Three years after losing Dad in 1992 her heart was broken again when one of her grandsons died in a tragic incident at the age of 20.

Through the years of toil, heartbreak and disappointments Mom maintained a positive and generous attitude. Giving gifts at Christmas brought her great joy.

In her later years she asked me to review her finances with her to be sure she was tithing appropriately out of her meager income. For my mother, it was always about giving.

Our mother loved us kids but, oh, she loved her grandkids even more. And she nearly worshiped her great-grandchildren.

It’s May and memories of our mother abound. The Huisman kids were raised in meager circumstances, but we were rich in the love of a mother who we all miss every day.

For Mother’s Day, birthday or any other occasion, if you need a gift idea for your mother, I recommend a flower.

Arvid Huisman can be contacted at huismaniowa@gmail.com. ©2026 by Huisman Communications.