As a mom, I can’t leave this one alone. The homeless man with the golden voice who hadn’t seen his mom is 20 years was reunited with her. They were interviewed together on the Today Show and many other programs.
My husband & I, like many others are fascinated by this story. As Ted Williams life unfolded before us yesterday, we couldn’t help but wonder why he was alone. Where was his family? He admitted that drugs and alcohol had brought him down. So it made a certain amount of sense that the family would have to let him go in order not to enable him.
So when the son couldn’t wait to see the mom, of course we couldn’t wait either. But mama was...well some mama! I think of what I would do in that situation. And well, I would pick, pick, pick. What’s right, what’s wrong, woulda, shoulda, coulda, teach, teach, tell, tell. Isn’t that what we do? Tell & fix. And she did. It got me laughing a little. That’s mom!
“Please don’t disappoint me,” she says. Is that us? Do we worry that our kids will disappoint us? Their school grades or their messy room or the way they act in the store?
“I go to one of the nicest churches in Brooklyn,” she says. Is that us? Do we think because of where we send our kids to school or church, that that’s the answer to perfection in them?
“All I ever got was promises,” she says. Or is that us as we promise things to our kids that maybe we can’t give? What do they learn from us?
“He’s easily pulled into things,” she says. Is that us? Do we tend to label or judge our kids based on what we think and believe?
“This is the last thing. How can you do our family like that? To think of my son putting up a sign and my family seeing all this,” she says. Is that us? Do we criticize the way our kids go about things, when they’re on the right track toward achieving something? Do we pick the wrong things to worry about?
Ted laughs, “She didn’t seem to feel as bad about the theft as about me holding the sign.”
You just gotta laugh. As smart as we think we are, we’re just moms sometimes fumbling our way through it all. Hopefully helping and hopefully not inflicting damage.
I think she must have done good, her son sure seemed to want to please her. After all. Finally.
Keep at it moms!
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