I was in eighth grade when I had to stay home for a few days due to sickness. I remember it like yesterday. I felt very sorry for my mom doing all the house work. In Saudi Arabia, a woman cannot drive or travel in taxi by herself. She has to be accompanied by a chaperone whenever she steps outside the safety of her household. We had temporary household help who would come weekly but rest of the time my mom did everything. Those were the days when eating outside was considered a luxury reserved for special occasions. The aristocratic families did not like to eat outside on regular basis.
Mom cooked everything from the scratch. Cooking South Asian Pakistani dishes in Saudi Arabia in those days was very difficult as the needed groceries were not available anywhere and were imported from Pakistan and rationed over the months.
That week when I had to stay home during week days, I realized just how much work she did. Not only she cooked from the scratch, she kept the kitchen spotless while doing that. She had everything ready and the table set for all before they reached home. There were a million other household chores she did whole day and she did all that with a smile and occasional SINGING.
I noticed all that lying in my bed and felt very sorry for not volunteering enough help to her in the past. I made a resolution that I will try my best to be more helpful in future. Once, I was out of bed, back to school, routine kicked in and that resolution got shelved.
Years later, Mom came to States for the birth of my first child. I had not seen her for over a year and my excitement knew no bounds on the thought of seeing her after such a long time. I remembered my resolution that got shelved so many years ago. I could empathize with her situation a lot as a married woman living in a foreign land. I made a fresh resolution that I would not let Mom work while visiting me. She was not as young as she used to be and she had worked very hard for us. It was about time that we gave her some relief.
Mom came and I had my first child. Mom cooked all the traditional dishes considered "beneficial" for a new mother. She brought trays up to my bedroom for straight ten days as she would not let me walk the stairs. She insisted that I rest. She is the one who gave the first bath and took care of my newly born child. Lying in my bed, I promised myself that once I regain my strength, I would not let her do anything.
A week before her departure, while freezing the batch of more than a hundred samosas Mom had made, I caught myself asking her if she would make her special Kabobs for me! My cupboard was already full with tightly packed jars of things that she had prepared to last for months and there was hardly any room left in the freezer after all the dishes that she had prepared and stored for me.
I tried to feel guilty remembering my broken resolve and promise of not letting her do anything but I could not. My heart said if not her then whom? I asked her without a shred of remorse because I knew that she was the only one in the whole entire universe to whom I could and she would do it wholeheartedly. Only a mom can do what no one else can.There is absolutely no relation like a Mom. There is no one like a Mom because God did not make anyone else like a Mom.
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