MOTHER’S DAY FEATURE – My mom, Kathleen Bentley Baber, always puts family first. She would go without – and has many times – to make sure her kids have what they need. She continues doing that to this day: giving, helping and sacrificing, even though all us kids are grown and gone. But she continues to take care of us.

My mother raised six kids as a single mom, and to this day I don’t know how she did it. But she did, and she made it, and I don’t know anybody else on this earth who strives every day to improve and learn and make things right like my mom does.

I will never forget a very traumatic and dark time in my life when, at the same time, my mom was battling colon cancer and undergoing chemotherapy. Her battle didn’t stop her from being there for me – above and beyond and even farther still, when I was dealing with life circumstances that were much bigger than I was. She put her own struggles aside to help me shoulder mine.

To this day, it’s hard for me to remember and accept the fact that, during that time when Mom was going through cancer and all that comes with it, she was there for me instead of the other way around. I wish with all my heart I could go back in time and change that.

Every kind and gentle tendency I possess within me can be traced back to my mom. She always gives of herself and does for others – thinking of everyone else first and herself last (if at all). She is an angel on earth, and though she is her own toughest critic, I know she has earned a million good marks and then some for herself in Heaven. What she doesn’t seek in reward here I know she will receive a million-fold in the next life.

I love you, Mom, and I thank you with all my heart for everything you have done for me and everything you continue to do.

Submitted by St. George News Assistant Editor Cami Cox Jim

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