Last week, I failed to mention Mother’s Day in any way and it has stayed on my mind all week, so I wanted to share some thoughts I have about the occasion.

My mother was often the person who made my life bearable. She was the one who made our family fun. We went to her with our problems if we could not figure them out on our own.

As long as she was in our house, it was a home and life seemed to be complete. She was our security blanket.

She was there to hold our heads when we were sick or was beside us at the doctor’s office or hospital even though she had worked all day herself.

She had many surgeries in her lifetime that affected her whole family when she was away in the hospital. It was during those times we five kids had to grow up quickly. We had to become adults at an early age.

However, when she came home, she made our life so much happier. I remember many times her getting out of a sick bed way too early to do things for us.

Just having her home again was all we needed to make us feel complete again. We all loved her deeply.

It is the same in homes all over the world. When momma is there, the family runs smoother.

I feel for those children whose moms choose someone else over them or who chooses alcohol or drugs over their children.

It is so far away from my realm of understanding that it makes me sick at my stomach to think of children who need their moms so much in their lives.

Motherhood should be taken seriously and with love. If you can’t do that, do not have a child.

I truly think this void in their lives affects a child either for the good or the bad. They either dig deeper within themselves to be their best or they hurt so badly they are changed forever.

I want to acknowledge all the women in the world who have stepped up and taken children into their homes, treated them as their own and raised them. I hope they were recognized on Mother’s Day. They made a huge change in their lives to do so.

Then, there are the other ladies in peoples’ lives who mean so much to those who have lost their mothers. I have had three very special ladies who have helped fill that void in my life. One was a lady I called Aunt Kath, even though she was really not my aunt but rather an aunt by a former marriage. She was a lady I could talk to about anything. She always stood by me. She and I would laugh, talk and go to the UK Wildcat basketball games together. Whatever we did, we had fun doing it. She filled a void for me I had lost with my own mother.

Somehow God always knew I needed that void filled because after she died, another lady came into my life that I loved dearly, Mrs. Dee. She was another I could talk to about anything and she always seemed to know the exact right words to say to me, no matter the conversation.

I have missed her so much but now, another sweet friend, Betty, seems to have filled in for my Mrs. Dee. I can tell her what’s on my heart and she can assure me or give me words of wisdom.

All three of these women have been women I have respected and loved so much.

Thank you to all the women who are there for someone. You never know how much you may mean to someone else. Sometimes people just need an ear and your time.

I have been blessed to have these people in my life. They have meant the world to me.

No, they will never take the place of my own precious mother, but they mean so much to me. I think my mom has smiled from heaven when she sees what they have done.

Thank you to all mommas for your hard work. Thank you to those who have been mommas to others.

For those of you about to be mothers, to me, there is no greater blessing or joy. The only thing that gets better is having a grandchild.

Sue Staton is a Clark County native who grew up in the Kiddville area. She is a wife, mother and grandmother who is active in her church, First United Methodist Church, and her homemakers group, Towne and Country Homemakers.