(bernardinodandrade@gmail.com)
Nelly had a very turbulent and destructive marriage. After this turbulent Marriage, she had to face an even more turbulent divorce. And to make things worse, she had to be a single mother raising a wild and rebellious daughter. There was no rest for Nelly.
Her daughter, Agnes, was seventeen years old when one day Nelly received a telephone call that left her completely frozen: «Hello! This is from the Police Station. Your daughter is here with us in the Police Station. We would like you to come and pick her up. We also want to talk with you». «Thank you! I will be there right now». «Oh my God… what happened, again?»
When Nelly arrived at the Police Station she was told that her daughter had been caught driving under the influence of alcohol. She rested for a while. The Captain talked with her in a severe manner and it seemed that she was ready to go home, and that she understood the consequences waiting for her in case she was caught again.
Nelly brought her daughter home without saying one word to her. The following day both of them spent all day without exchanging a word. The atmosphere was somber and thick. The silence between them was deafening. Finally Nelly called Agnes and told her: «Agnes, please sit down here on this chair. I have a special gift for you».
Agnes took her seat and Nelly offered her a gift wrapped in colourful paper tied by a very beautiful yellow ribbon. With the gift she also offered her a card inside a beautiful envelope. The gift was strangely heavy but Agnes never suspected what kind of gift was inside of that beautifully wrapped paper.
When Agnes opened the gift she became very upset when she saw a simple stone. Just a stone. She could never imagine that someone could give a stone as a gift. In her anger she told her mother: «Is this a gift that you, stupid mother, have to give to your daughter? Couldn’t you find something better to insult me? Why a cold stone? I never thought you could do this to me!».
Nelly just told her: «Please read the card».
Agnes read the card, stopped for a few moments, then started crying and threw herself in her mother’s arms. Both cried for a while.
In the card her mother had written: «My precious, precious daughter, this stone is three hundred million years old. That is the time that it will take for me to quit on you».
Among many essential things in my life I learn from mothers is that God, no matter what, will never quit on me.
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!
May 2, 2021
Fr. Bernardino Andrade