Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 8, 1994 TAG: 9405080093
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Betsy Biesenbach
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Six winners are chosen in the categories of Education, Family Life, Business and Professions, Religion, Arts and Sciences, and Community Affairs. The winners are honored at a reception, they tape a television show, and we profile them in the Neighbors sections of the newspaper.
For the past four or five years, I have volunteered to write their stories. It's not an easy job. There are a lot of interviews to do in a very short time, and I have to work around the busy schedules of the winners.
The most frustrating thing, however, is the lack of space to talk about each individual. I understand that, in the old days of the "women's pages," a separate story was written about each woman.
What amazes me is that each winner deserves her own story. I keep thinking that, someday, the Roanoke Valley will run out of women like these, but it hasn't happened yet.
It's sometimes heartbreaking to decide what parts of their stories I should tell and what parts I should leave out.
Sometimes, the material that doesn't make it in is the most interesting. This year, for instance, Roanoke councilman Mac McCadden's mother, Estelle, Mother of the Year for Community Affairs, informed me that he was the only one of her four children who ever learned to run a sewing machine well.
That might come in handy if the city ever gets the minor-league baseball team he is longing for. If he could run up their uniforms, it would save the taxpayers a whole lot of money.
There's something about an interview for a newspaper story that makes people want to tell all, despite the distrust many say they have of the media.
In a normal conversation, it's polite to let both parties talk; but during an interview, the interviewee is free to say whatever comes to mind, and the interviewer is supposed to be anonymous. And because these are nice stories about nice people, "But don't print that!" is almost always honored, if possible.
Most of the time, I let the women talk as long and as much as they want. They are not like the rest of us, and I want to figure out why.
The rest of us, I think, would just as soon come home from our jobs every day and have dinner and watch TV, or maybe go out with a friend, or drive a child to an activity. Some of us coach a Little League team, take a class, volunteer at a child's school, join the church choir, or work for a political party, but these women do all of that and more. In many cases, they are "Mom" to entire neighborhoods.
What is it about them that makes them want to spend their spare time serving others?
For one thing, most of them have been doing it all of their lives, and it's a hard habit to break. Most of the mothers also have ambition for themselves or their families. They set goals and work toward them. They have compassion for people unrelated to them, and like to work with children or take care of the elderly. In most cases, they are optimistic. They seem to look forward to each and every day, and they are not burned out on life or on their work.
But I think the most important thing they have in common is love. With very few exceptions, the Mothers of the Year I have met were loved and were nurtured by their own mothers. Their children, in turn, love and respect them.
I think this is the secret to being a Mother of the Year. To know what it is to be loved, and to be able to give that love to others.
The Mothers of the Year are Ngoc Cuc Thi Cao of Southeast Roanoke, Mother of the Year for Family Life; Betty Jo Lockard of Southwest Roanoke, Mother of the Year for Business and Professions; Peggy Sue Mason of Southwest Roanoke, Mother of the Year for Education; Estelle Jeannette McCadden of Northwest Roanoke, Mother of the Year for Community Affairs; Ann McLaughlin of Bluefield, Mother of the Year for Arts and Sciences; Marzetta Sinkler of Salem, Mother of the Year for Religious Activities.
by CNB