A person's worth can be measured,
by the selfless works they show.
My mother's life then is priceless,
just ask anyone she knows.
When someone asks her help for one day,
she insists on helping for two.
Not to hold them in debt for her trouble,
but to show her love for them is true.

My mother is not judgmental.
She accepts a person for who they are.
She has good things to say about everyone,
even if their views are not hers.
At times life has raised its fist,
as if to try to strike my mother down.
But, like Job, she places her trust in God,
and firmly stands her ground. Mom is a hard working woman -
working from dawn, deep into the night.
When she sits to rest, she does arts and crafts.
If her hands aren't busy, she's out like a light.
Mom's hard work, and giving should show us,
to always keep our eyes on the goal.
The rewards for a lifetime of giving,
is the joy of eternal peace for your soul. She was the teacher of many children.
A curriculum of English and Math were only samples.
You see, she also taught her students values.
Always teaching them by her example.
She read to the children daily
during their quiet time after lunch.
She opened their imaginations,
and blessed each life she touched. Her childhood was spent in Colorado -
a place for which she sometimes yearns.
She moved to Texas for an education, and married;
she raised four children, passing on to them what she'd learned.
We four children are the most blessed by Loiese Bryan -
she has cherished each one of us from birth.
You see, we grew up touched by an angel.
At least as close as we will find on this Earth. Always thinking I was more than I was,
I always objected to her calling me a "boy."
She never directed it as an insult to me,
still, I'd respond, "you must have said Roy."
Today I look at things differently.
I feel great pride, and am never annoyed,
whenever someone refers to me
as Bill and Loiese Bryan's "boy." Growing up, our mother always encouraged us
to do our best in whatever we tried.
Winning at any cost was not the goal we should seek,
but to try valiantly in whatever the fight.
Growing up, I learned right from wrong,
by reading my mothers eyes.
The pride they showed when I did the right thing,
and the pain I caused her when I lied. If I were given one wish to solve the world's problems,
I know the wish I would choose.
That every child could have a mother like mine,
to teach them what she taught me in my youth.

by: Ronald H. Bryan