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To Mom, Kitty Gironda, submitted by son, Steve You may or may not know, or remember the wife of the coach and teacher Chuck Gironda, but I will never forget her. Why, she is my mother!
Back in the day while attending Smith Elementary she was the perfect mother, by 70’s standards. She was Dr. Spock, Martha Stewart, Subway and Betsy Ross all rolled into one. (While at NBC she was the official equipment repair person. She fixed jerseys every week and she even made Penny Blake’s wedding veil when she married Ken Bussard.)
When I opened my lunch at Smith Elementary I was the envy of all of my class mates. You remember the home made bread, the freshly canned jelly, those chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies. She made my dress shirts, jeans and winter jackets. All of my jeans had the most awesome football patches sewn on the knees! She cut my hair and fixed my boo-boos. She was there no matter what. When something went wrong she was in my corner. When Bob Shope, Eddie Bollman and Tim Foor picked on me she was there. When I wrecked my 1966 Schwinn Sting Ray, she was there. So how did I reward her for all of her good deeds? I treated her like crap.
It all started in 1979, and it went down hill from there. You see she was still looking out for me! When we moved from Loysburg to the thriving metropolis of Ebensburg she out-did herself. She made me the most awesome outfits for school; draw string pants suites with vests and long sleeved dress shirts. Well, I hope you can all see where this is going…first day of school at Central Cambria Middle School the “homo” in the vest got beat up. (My first fight and last loss!) I thought we moved to Compton. I got home and told her I was never wearing that outfit again. Nice kid She vowed never to sew for me again.
We both made it through high school and I couldn’t wait to go college. She said she couldn’t wait for me to go either. She cried when I left and so did I; although her tears may have been for joy??? Over the years I never gave her the credit she was due. I would return from home school and my clothes were clean and folded, my favorite meal was waiting for me and she always baked something for me to take back to Shippensburg to share with the guys. She approved of my girlfriend and now wife of 15 years. She baby sat my son for 2 years, she continues to watch the kids after school, making sure they don’t go hungry. She has been the model parent and grandparent for 40 years. Every year I get older and she seems to get smarter…or did I just start listening?
This year for my 40th birthday I received the most special birthday present from my mother! (For those of you who don’t know I travel a lot for work, mostly to federal law enforcement offices world-wide.) She presented me with a hand made quilt full of law enforcement patches I collected from many of the offices I had visited over the years. She must have spent hundreds of hours on it! It now covers one of the walls in my office and I am the envy of my co-workers.
Maybe we should all take a minute and thank our mothers for everything they have done for us and will continue to do for us, while we still can!
Thank you for EVERYTHING Mom!
Love Always,
Steve |
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