Amazing Moms: 'I Miss You Every Day!'

In honor of Mother's Day, Wisconsin Patch is running a story about an "Amazing Mom" once a day this week. Our first Amazing Mom comes from Van Wanggaard, a Wisconsin state senator from Racine County. Have an Amazing Mom? E-Mail Scott.Anderson@patch.com and tell us your story!

I come from a large family. My mother had eight kids, I was the fourth oldest of three girls and five boys. My mother always made each one of us feel loved and special.

She handled stress well. Two weeks before my fifth birthday we moved into our family home in west Racine, and I was bitten in the face by an older lab. The dog didn’t know I just wanted to hug him. When I was about 13 years old,she came out into the back yard and saw me standing at the top of the antenna mast on the house roof attaching a CB radio antenna.

My mother had a pure heart that looked at positives in whoever she met. She taught me patience (most of the time) and to value relationships built on strong family values. She shared herself as a mom to all the friends we brought home and probably slept on the couch most of her life waiting until she knew we were all safe at home and in for the night.

My mother believed in God and taught all of us to center our lives on Jesus. My parents were married on December 12, 1941, a few days after Pearl Harbor and right before my father left to serve in the South Pacific war theatre. The photo of my mother was in the Racine Journal Times toward the end of World War II as she waited over four-and-a-half years for my father’s return home.

One of the most important things my mother instilled in me is to be faithful! Miss you every day Mom!

Love, Van

Submitted Photo