As a form of appreciation to the dedicated and loving mothers of Butler County, Eagle staff writers asked residents to share their favorite memories of their mothers.
These are their stories:
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Heidi Nicholls Bowser, healthy living director at the Butler YMCA, said her mother was born in Germany during World War II, and emigrated to Illinois when she was 12. Nicholls Bowser said it was her mom who inspired her to get involved with sports and exercise and acting.
"She taught me that life is an adventure where you find something creative to connect to," Nicholls Bowser said. "She did a lot of cultural things, introduced me to sports and took me to a lot of children's theater. That's the reason why I am in healthy living."
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Bill Foley, coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College said, “For as long as I can remember, my mother has wanted me to write a short story about a lighthouse.
“Because I am a writer.
“Because she loves lighthouses.”
Her only real collectibles are porcelain salt-and-pepper shakers shaped like lighthouses and aligned behind the glass doors of her dining room hutch, he said. Six or eight pairs, some with horizontal black stripes, some with spirals, some with green stripes and some with gold. All are souvenirs from vacations to this seashore or that.
Her dream is still to pass a night in a lighthouse.
“There weren’t any lighthouses up or down the seashore the summer that Abby, the 23-year-old woman who had accepted my marriage proposal, and I joined my family’s vacation. My family lived in Western Pennsylvania, and Abby and I, in eastern Pennsylvania.
“Abby wore a white one-piece swimsuit as she sunned on a navy-blue-and-white-striped beach towel atop the sand. Her blue eyes closed, tufts of her long blond hair lifted and fell with each ocean breeze.
“Across the years, a health condition Abby had had since her teenage years slowly became worse. Across the state from all that anchored me, I slowly became adrift.
“’Hey mom,’ I’d begin our telephone calls: From emergency rooms lobbies. From this ICU floor and that hospital room. From the skilled nursing center offering Abby hospice care.
“’Let me know,’ my mother would say, and end our telephone calls with "I love you, and Abby.”
“My mother was my beacon. A light – the light – guiding me through.
“My brothers and I are taking my mother back to that very seashore to celebrate her upcoming 80th birthday.
“I may never get to writing that short story about a lighthouse.
“But I know I will be on that beach with memories of Abby sunning on a navy blue-and-white-striped beach towel atop the sand. And with the beacon that helped me to pass many a night.
“I love you, and Abby.“
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Liz Smith, founder of the hobnob theatre co. in Butler, said her favorite memory of her mother stems from her own journey to motherhood.
“We had three boys in three years and she was always the first at the hospital when they were born and always at the house helping with the first newborn and subsequent toddlers and newborns. And she still spoils her grandchildren,” she said.
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Eric Ritzert, superintendent of Karns City Area School District, said he hopes he can be the sort of parent his mother was to him.
“As I reflect on this years Mother’s Day, I have fond memories of my childhood. My mother was instrumental in motivating me to do well in school,” he said. “She was very supportive and made sure I did my homework and did well.
“My mom is a generally good and supportive person and enabled me to be successful. I hope I can be, as a father, what she was to me.”
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Bill McNutt, commander of American Legion post 778 in Lyndora, was 8 years old when his mother died in 1956, so he would have little to no memory of her if it weren't for one family story.
McNutt said relatives have told him that when he was very small and the apple of his mother's eye, he always made his mom and those she drove in her carpool late for work due to his incessant fussing over her having to leave for the day.
McNutt said the story goes that when she would get ready each day for her job at a glass plant in Parker, Bill would often hide to delay his mom's inevitable departure in the morning.
Because his Mom began calling him "a little bugger" for his daily antics, little Bill McNutt became known as "Bugger Bill" in his family.
"I didn't want to go to Grandma's, so I would hide," McNutt said.
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Larry Barr, a Butler County deputy coroner, recalls his mother's skill in his family's Meridian kitchen, and his particular happiness when she would make lemon meringue pie or a pork and noodle dish she often prepared for the family's dinner.
"I've tried making it, and it doesn't taste anything like hers," Barr said of the pork and noodle dish.
Barr also thinks of his mother, who died 14 years ago, when he enjoys the company of his dog and cat, Stewie and Bella.
"She was a great animal lover and I inherited that from her," he said.
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Brian Bailey, mayor of Portersville, said he was blessed to grow up in a caring, nurturing family.
He recalled his mother telling him to love everyone, to which he replied with that recurrent youthful question, "Why?"
Bailey said his mother told him to envision a huge picture window in a nice log cabin, with beautiful trees, rivers and snow-caped mountains visible outside.
"She said 'The more love you have in your heart, the cleaner that window is,'" Bailey said.
Allowing pain or envy or any negativity into life clouds the beautiful view available through the window, Bailey's mother counseled him.
Bailey has carried that advice throughout his life and tried to practice his late mother's advice in every situation.
"It's easier when you see the beauty in the world," he said.
