Today marks 14 years since my mother went home to the Lord. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss her and wish she was still here with me. No one will ever be able to love me the way that she did. I wish so badly that she was here with me today but I know that she is always around me and surrounding me with her love.
Violet reminds me of her love in so many ways. When she envelops me with an embrace that can only come from an adoring child, I feel the love that my mother must have felt for me. When I look on and admire something that she is doing, I understand how proud my mother must have been of me at times. When Violet does something that hurts me, like when she tells me “I don’t like you.” I feel the heartbreak my mother must have felt when I uttered those exact words to her.
My mother was my best friend and I am fairly certain that I am Violet’s. Both are relationships that I will cherish my whole life long.
Violet reminds me that Grandma Pam is with us always and that her love is always with us. I am sure that it is.
Here is a poem that I wrote 5 years ago and lost in the tsunami. I rewrote it back in July from my memory and with some new additions. It is my hope to one day put it to music. I share it today in honor of my beloved mother, Pamela Sue Sweet Elizondo, January 15, 1955- August 18, 1999.
Ruby Slippers
I’ve been down this road before
The yellow one paved with bricks
Trying to go back in time
To the time before you were sick.
But I have no Ruby Slippers
And the Wizard’s just a man
And there is no magic in this world
To bring you back again.
I’m trying to get home
But I just can’t seem to get there.
Wishing I could run up the drive
And see you standing there
With your arms open wide
Oh the tears I have cried.
I click and click my heels
Wanting just to feel
Your warm embrace
Your hand on my face.
But I have no Ruby Slippers
And the Wizard’s just a man
And there is no magic in this world
To bring you back again.
Oh there’s no place like home.
No there is no place like home.
There’s no place like home.
But it’s the one place I can’t go.
Even if I made it
to the home I loved so dear
It wouldn’t be the same, no, no
To me that much is clear.
Cause I have no Ruby Slippers
And the Wizard’s just a man
And there is no magic in this world
To bring you back again.
There is no place like home.
There is no place like home.
There is no place like home.
Oppai Kudasai 