Mom and Russ

It has been a long time coming. No, I’m not talking about Barack Obama’s running mate decision for Senator Joe Biden that he made official this morning. No, I’m not talking about Brett Favre’s recent decision to make a comeback and sign with the New York Jets.


I’m talking about my mom and Russ.

Today they got married. She had been single for more than a decade before she met Russ. Yet my mom has an amazing way of making the most out of life. Maybe it is her strong religious beliefs and knowledge of the bible. Maybe it is her constant positive nature. (It has been no exaggeration when I call my mom a "walking Prozac," only she is the last person I know who would use drugs.) I see it as both of these and more. My mom is not just a positive person, she is a giving person. Every person she meets, she gives something to them, from a warm, genuine smile to an open mind. My mom is living proof for the old saying what goes around, comes around. I can’t say I always believed in this law of give and return. My mom seemed to always give all she had and yet many men in her life did not return the favor, me being among those on that list. Still she kept giving … to her church, to her high school students, to her family and friends. Now it is finally returning. She lives in a home that would make Bob Vila jealous, she retired from teaching history this past June, and she can enjoy life with someone who can keep up with her … Russ.


They went white-water rafting in Alaska last summer and skiing down diamond trails in Canada last winter. My mom recently confessed, "After you left Colorado, I thought I’d never ski again."


And so there she was this morning in the same church she had prayed in every Sunday for many years … alone. Now she was wearing a wedding dress. It was obvious how happy she was and I thought to myself, no one more deserves it.