AARP Rewards Mother's Day Contest 2026!

The most important thing my mother taught me is to never give up. When things are bad that means they'll get better. When things are good, be grateful. Also share goodness with others. Be genuinely happy for others and their successes. The golden rule applies to everything. 

I want to thank my mother for the life she gave me i miss you mom😍

The most important thing my mother ever taught me was to always save for a rainy day. Thanks Mom!

One of the most beautiful gifts as a mother, is watching your daughter become a mom herself, and just being awestruck as to what an amazing women she’s become. Truly the greatest gift is knowing my children are my most beautiful legacy.

One of the best gifts of being a wife, mother of 2 beautiful adult daughters.  One just turned 22.  She still lives at home.  My oldest one is 29 and after her divorce in February she moved back home but she brought a gift.  She is pregnant with my first grand baby.  She is having a boy due on her dad's birthday.  She is naming him after my dad's first name and her dad's middle name.  Leonard Thomas, Leo for short.  She is actually due July 21st but is getting induced on July 13th on her dad's birthday and that's blessing for all three of us.  Her dad, my husband, he's excited to be a pepaw.  We have been married almost 30 years.  It will be 30 years August 16,2016.  Plus we live with my mom to help take care of her because she is 73 years old.  She is going to be great grandma.  Plus we had a bonus my me and my husband and my younger daughter living here, last  August we had a scare with me.   I found out I had breast cancer in my left breast.  So I ended up having a bilateral mastectomy, then I went through chemo from December 2025 to February 2026.  Then in March I had surgery to remove 12 lymphnodes and they were all negative.  Praise the Lord.  So I am in remission for now. I plan to stay that way for awhile because I can't wait to welcome this new grandbaby into the world. 

He truly is a blessing from God.   My dad passed away about 40 years ago so I am going to say he was handpicked by his great grandpa in Heaven.  So he will be perfect.

Mrs. Groah, my third grade teacher, "Your mother is a beautiful woman.  She has such a wonderful smile".  My mom was physically attractive, but also extremely smart.  She was high school valedictorian and homecoming queen.  Somehow I knew even then Mrs. Groh meant beautiful, strong, inside and out.  Many years later I recognized my high school typing teacher at an event.  I told her, "My mom insisted I take typing, which meant being an hour late for wrestling practice one day a week".  I was angry, but Mom insisted, and I told the teacher, "As mom said it would, typing turned out to be extremely valuable as I've done a lot of writing."  My former teacher smiled, then almost cried, saying, "We teach all these years and mostly hear nothing, or just the bad things.  You don't know what it means to hear such a good thing."  I did know.  Mom was still brightening lives 15 years after she died.  When my Dad retired, Mom and Dad travelled all over the country in an old camper he knew how to keep running.  When Dad died, Mom quit travelling till I asked, "Any other place you"d like to go?"  I took her to Philadelphia, "birthplace of America", and I still remember the tension at the Liberty Bell.  The rest of the folks in the tour just wanted to get on with it, but the knowledgeable guide was smiling profusely, thrilled to be able to answer the most amazing questions pouring forth from my Mother. When she was dying, I brought her applesauce I made myself.  I tried to get her to teach me to cook in high school, but she refused.  I don't know if she feared I'd destroy her kitchen, or if it was that conservative thinking, "Cooking is women's work."  I learned on my own, and as I spooned applesauce into Mom's mouth, she said weakly, "You made applesauce just for me?"  That strong, beautiful smile spread slowly across Mom's face.  It brightens my life to this day.

My mom has been gone for many, many years.  She used many colorful expressions (ranging from sweet to sarcastic to almost profane) that, to date, I've never heard anyone else say.  "That's enough of that happy horse s**t!" "I'm gonna go bite him right in the ass!"  and "Bless your baby heart" are among my favorites.  I was born in the 60s, she died in 2010 and I can still "hear"some of her words from nearly 60 years ago.

  In our family we have a saying: "Growing old isn't for sissies".  So, thank you mom for teaching me grit and determination. At 96 you may not have the physical strength to do all the things you still want to do, but you still have the heart, grit and determination (okay - sometimes described as stubbornness) to still do so much in your life.  Happy Mother's Day!  

  In the past I would plant a rose bush in my mom’s garden.  Now my daughter and I share the experience of tea service at Chado or The Huntington followed by a visit to a local botanical garden.

 My mother has passed away. However I think my daughter should be considered. I was at an all-time low when I lost my mother.  I didn’t care if I lived or died. She was my very best friend.  My daughter is married with two children and lives 12 hours away. When I would call her several times a day, she answered every time. even if it was just to say she was in the middle of something and she’ll call me right back, which she did. It’s been 4 1/2 years since my mother passed and still to this day my daughter and I talk several times a week. I no longer drive and I don’t Have any family nearby. last month when my daughter called me and found out I wasn’t feeling that good. She had cold medicine, cough drops, and soup delivered to my house.  She did all this for me while raising two children with a husband that was away the majority of the time due to the Coast Guard. I am truly blessed to have her as a daughter.  She was the one that helped me through the most difficult time in my life. She is one of a kind.