Real motherly love always has room for our children and so many others | Opinion

Love. It’s a funny emotion, though I don’t mean “ha-ha” funny. Let me explain.

The more love you give away, the more love you have. Love just grows and grows. Motherly love is like that. I don’t care how many children a mother has, she never seems to fall short on love. There is always enough room on her lap to comfort a child who needs comforting, and her arms are never too short to reach out and give a warm hug.

A loving mother can nurture her own children and still find the time to love and nurture children who wander into her nest. I would like to think that I am that kind of mom. This is not to say that being a mother is easy work. Sometimes love is hard, causing bitter tears to fall.

When I was a teenager, my friends and I would often dream out loud about our future. All of us dreamed of eventually getting married and having children. I was the only one who wanted no less than five children. I suppose it was because I have one sibling, and to this very day, we are very close. My brother Adam was my gift from the Easter Bunny when I was 2 years and 11 months old.

That’s what my grandma Susie told me the day he was born. And I believed her. It wasn’t until I was much older and started to wonder why the Easter Bunny delivered him so early, that it came to me.

My brother was born Jan. 6, too late for Santa to have brought him as a Christmas present, but early enough for the Easter Bunny to make a special delivery to me. Having a baby brother was a delight. We played together, and I made up stories to keep him entertained.

And then he grew up and found other friends, friends who didn’t mind getting dirty playing marbles or sneaking off to the rock pit to learn to swim. Oh, he loved me, all right. But I was just a girl. And to make matters worse, I was his sister.

Hence, my reasoning for wanting a large family: My children would always have someone play with.

Well, it didn’t happen the way I’d planned. The Lord blessed me with two sons. When the first one was born, I smiled down at him and wondered, “What in the world am I going to do with you?” I figured I’d know exactly what to do with a girl baby because I was a girl.

But just like that, my motherly love kicked in and there was no question of what I was going to do with my beautiful new son. I was going to love him. That’s all.

I thought I couldn’t love another child as much as I loved Rick. I was wrong. When Shawn came along three and a half years later, the floodgates of love opened and once more poured out gallons of love.

You would think that my love supply would have been pretty low by the time I became a grandmother. On the contrary, the floodgates of love opened again and poured out even more love. It happened again when I became a great-grandmother. The more love I gave, the more love I still had to give.

Love. It’s a wonderful thing. It doesn’t matter if you are a biological mom or not. What matters is that you have love in your heart and you’re willing to share it.

Over the years, I have learned real, motherly love never dries up. Not only is there an abundance of love for my sons, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, there is love enough for my many, many godchildren and all the surrogate sons and daughters I have picked up along the way. And the best part is they all love me right back!

I am a blessed woman on this Mother’s Day!

Charmettes luncheon, scholarship fundraiser

The Miami-Dade County Chapter of Charmettes, Inc., will present their annual fundraiser, a Scholarship Breakfast and Fashion Show, at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 16, at Miami Lakes Hotel, 6842 Main St. in Miami Lakes. The theme is, “Rising Stars – Moving the Vision Forward.”

The event is one of the organization’s major fundraising projects, supporting cancer research and providing scholarships to deserving young women. This year’s program will also include the Charmettes’ first Baby Charm Contest. The winning baby will be crowned “The Most Charming Baby” at the event.

Also, the organization will honor five “Pillars of the Community.” They are: Jonell Williams, Education; Troy A. Duffie, Finance; Maghan Marin, Entrepreneurship; Christa Curry, Humanitarian, and Kanisha Williams, Real Estate.

Tickets are $65 per person and can be purchased by calling 202-570-4689, or by sending an email to, cduffie07@gmail.com.

Top aging researcher to speak at conference

The 30^th Annual Ministering to the Elderly Conference will be from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday on the campus of Miami Jewish Health, 5200 NE Second Ave.

The theme is “Family, Faith and Forgiveness: From Estrangement to Reconciliation” and will feature Karl A. Pillemer, Ph.D, as the keynote speaker. Pillemer, professor of human development at Cornell University and author of several books on family relationships, is a renowned family sociologist and gerontologist. His research examines how individuals and their families develop and change throughout their lives.

“Asking and granting forgiveness is a fundamental value in all the great religious traditions,” said Norma Orovitz, conference founder. “At its root, reconciliation is motivated not only by the fundamental ethical obligations we have to one another – especially among family members – but also by the religious idea of peace, which is critical to the proper functioning of any society.”

The cost is $36 per person and includes lunch. Continuing education credit is available. To register, call 786-866-8655.

This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 1:46 PM.