Do you know everything about your mother?
My sisters and I had a conversation with our mother around the kitchen table. The topic was spring cleaning.
“Wow, Mom! You made us do so much work every spring. It was silly. We’re glad we don’t have to do that any more.”
“You don’t know how hard it was when I cleaned house with my mother,” Mom said. “She made my sisters and I take everything—furniture, even paintings off the walls—everything outside the house. Then scrub the house from top to bottom.
“And when I say, top to bottom, I mean clean the ceilings, down the walls, and finally the floors. In every single room.
“Then we scrubbed all the furniture outside before we brought it back into the house. I hardly made you girls do anything compared to that!”
We stared at her. That was one story we’d never heard before.
Why in the world did people do that?
Partly because the soot from coal-fired furnaces and wood-burning fireplaces left black smudges on everything—especially ceilings and walls. And partly because of germs.
Winter time illnesses and stale house air left people with a desire to scrub it out of their homes. They wanted clean fresh spring air. Do you blame them?
Maybe you don’t know your mom as well as you think you do.
What are the things you wish you understood about your mother? Why did she do things the way she did?
Do what you can now to understand her. Some day you may wish you had.
Tell me what you learn in the comments below. The things you learn may encourage others to seek understanding, too.
Until next time . . . Travel Light,
SuZan
© 2023 SuZan Klassen. All Rights Reserved.
SuZan Klassen 