Last night, my brother and I went to hear Just Us! give a Veterans’ Day concert. While neither of us is exactly the biggest fan of Patriotic music, we are big fans of our mom, and she is the accompanist for this group. In fact, they dedicated “every note” of the concert to her.
As I sat in the church sanctuary and watched people stream in, I was struck by how many people were turning up just to support their friends. I knew – even after living away for almost 15 years – many of the people in the room, and I know Mom and Dad knew even more. Even as we stopped on the way home to pick up donuts for Dad, a friend from high school pulled through the Dunkin Donuts parking lot; she had just sent me an email earlier in the day to say she was thinking of Mom.
When I was younger, I told Mom and Dad that I could never imagine living in a small town like this; I didn’t want everyone in my business. At times like these though, I think I’d rather be a part of a small town any day. We have received more cards, emails, calls, and offers of help than I could ever recognize. All to help my mom and dad. Now, it’s nice to have everyone in our “business.”
Sometimes I wonder what life on earth really means. Do those of us in our small lives really make any difference? Do we have to do something “great” or become famous to have “lived life to the fullest?” But last night, and in the time since Mom became very ill, I have learned that sometimes what seems to be the smallest of lives lived in the smallest of towns is the biggest life of them all. Mom, you have lived big, and your small and grand acts of love have changed the world around you. What better purpose could there be than that.