{"id":873,"date":"2013-05-12T11:52:28","date_gmt":"2013-05-12T11:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.com\/?p=873"},"modified":"2013-05-12T11:52:28","modified_gmt":"2013-05-12T11:52:28","slug":"not-your-typical-mothers-day-tribute-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/?p=873","title":{"rendered":"Not your typical Mother’s Day tribute"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Twain once said, \u201cIt’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.\u201d<\/h2>\n

I don\u2019t know the circumstances regarding the utterance, but I think we all understand the meaning.\u00a0 I know that more than once in my life I have had to muster up strength and courage to fight against all kinds of injustice.\u00a0 I\u2019m proud to know my own children carry that legacy on, and we affectionately refer to one of our kids as \u201cthe truth and justice meter\u201d.\u00a0 More than once, I have heard my husband say, \u201cShe may be small, but she is scrappy. My money is on her.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t actually consider myself small, but my \u201cfight\u201d in this world can pack a mighty wallop.<\/p>\n

The truth is this is one trait where the apple doesn\u2019t fall far from the tree.<\/p>\n

In most ways, I take after my dad from chosen career to genetic traits.\u00a0 But there is one trait that I definitely get from my mom.\u00a0 The tenacity to never give up and to fight when no one else speaks up\u00a0are pretty big legacies.<\/p>\n

I am reminded of a time from my childhood when my mom\u00a0accomplished the bravest thing I have ever seen anybody do.\u00a0 Now, if you were to ask her, I probably have some of the details wrong, but remember, \u00a0it is my elementary school brain that remembers the story.<\/p>\n

Long ago, my parents were dorm parents.\u00a0 We lived in the apartment complex attached to the Men\u2019s Athletic dormitory at Columbus (GA) College.\u00a0 To us kids, it felt like we lived in a castle.\u00a0 There was lots of room to romp and play, with the exception being right out our back door.\u00a0 The neighbors had “some type of something” going on over there that involved large and vicious-sounding dogs.\u00a0 Most likely, those were real fighting dogs.\u00a0 The people, who we rarely ever saw, kept those dogs tied out on short stakes with no shade in the hot Georgia weather, day and night.\u00a0 If one of us kids so much as stepped foot back there, those dogs literally warned us with their growling and\u00a0snarling not to do it again.\u00a0 They were big, barking behemoths that scared us to death.<\/p>\n

Then one day came the thunderstorm of all thunderstorms.\u00a0 Deep, dark, threatening clouds that released thunderous noise, bright lightning, and golf ball hailstones terrorized our neighborhood.\u00a0 My mom looked out the window at the storm, but instead of seeing the weather, her heart was broken.\u00a0 All she saw was frightened\u00a0animals who were being pummeled by hailstones.\u00a0 Putting her own life at risk, she gathered up cardboard boxes and went out into the storm.\u00a0 All I can remember doing is holding my brother and crying, watching her go from one dog to another to provide each one with a rudimentary shelter.<\/p>\n

Sopping wet, \u00a0cold and I am certain bruised, shed didn’t bother to towel off before she proceeded to call the police upon returning inside. \u00a0From there, the details get fuzzy, but I do know that she was called to testify in court about the maltreatment of those animals.<\/p>\n

And she did!<\/p>\n

An injustice had occurred and if no one else was going to stand up for those dogs, she would.<\/p>\n

One day, the dogs were all gone, and she told us the police came and picked them up.\u00a0 I would like to believe that they went to loving homes, but even if they didn\u2019t . . .<\/p>\n

I am so proud of my mom and the fight left in her \u201cdog\u201d.\u00a0 It is a lesson I never forgot.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>

This picture is 5 years old, but it is one of the few I have with my mom and her mom in recent years. (my daughter, my mom, me, my other daughter, and my Nanny). This will be our first Mother’s Day without Nanny.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Twain once said, \u201cIt’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.\u201d I don\u2019t know the circumstances regarding the utterance, but I think we all understand the meaning.\u00a0 I know that more than once in my life I have had to muster up strength […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[112,159,244,311,312,353,386,425],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}