The Woman Named Love

By Iris Little Bird
Arkansas, USA

Seeds of rebellion had been planted in my young life before I arrived at Mom and Dad’s home. I had been mistreated, and life was a hardship to me already. My teenage years had arrived with great turbulence. Mom and Dad had a home of love. I was shown through example that there is a way of love in life. Mom did not give birth to me; she gave me much more.

Over many years, Mom and Dad took over 100 children into their home and lives. I saw them open their hearts and home to each child. Mom said, “There is always room for one more.” I watched her love work miracles in the lives of the babies and children who came with anguish into her home.

She said, “Many people say that they can’t be foster parents because you get attached and then you have to release that child. It is tough, but what keeps you going is that there is another child waiting. When one child leaves, there is no replacing them, but the needs of a new child fill the empty spot they left.”

Mom taught me how to laugh and play. Her house always had a full table with wonderful food and laughter to be shared. As a hurting teenager, I often tried her gentleness. She believed in the “mean mom syndrome” — as in, “You can make better grades than a D.” I started bringing home A’s and B’s, and she smiled. Many years later, the seeds of love she’d planted in a rebellious teen’s life germinated. The day I graduated as a nurse, she said, “I always knew you could.” When I thanked her, she said, “Thank you for coming to me.”

Years later, when I visited home as a young adult, I told Mom the house didn’t feel right without a baby “on the blanket.” There had always been a baby on the blanket in the living room. On my next visit, Toby was “on the blanket.” Although Mom and Dad were in their 60s, they had adopted their “child of laughter.” When people asked what if Toby lost them due to their age, Mom said she was more concerned about what would happen to him without them at this young stage rather than if he lost them later.

Mom continued to teach us about strength and courageous love as she fought cancer. Since 1999, Dad has been raising Toby, now a teenager, by himself.

I still hear Mom’s gentle voice in the wind. What she taught me is inside of me and affects everything I do. I try to walk in honor of the loving soul she was: the wondrous mother and good wife. She will always be “The Woman Named Love” to me.

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