By Ralphine Major

I never knew her except through pictures and stories from our mother. Mandy Smith Torbett was our maternal grandmother. Originally from Anderson County, Tennessee, she moved to Knoxville when she and our grandfather, Tecil C. Torbett from Chattanooga, married. In 1941, at the age of 41, Mandy died as a result of a heart condition. Our mother was only eight years old.
Mother’s Day is that special holiday set aside to honor our living mothers while remembering those who have passed on. Sadly, many mothers have been lost to the COVID-19 pandemic this past year. While some of the mothers were in a later stage of life, many of them were young mothers who left their young children behind.
However, your church and family celebrated Mother’s Day 2021—with bouquets of flowers going to the oldest and youngest or special dinners on the well-deserved day, I hope your Mother’s Day was joyful and full of memories. To all mothers—may you have a blessed year ahead full of good health and happiness, for you are the fabric that weaves together not only our families but our communities and our nation. Especially in these days, godly mothers are needed more than ever. Mothers—God bless you!

Words of faith from Luke 2:51 (KJV) in reference to the mother of Jesus: “But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.”