Raising three boys is never an easy job.

There are the countless scrapes and bruises that only a mother’s kiss can heal.

There are messes that somehow a little boy can find a way to make that can never be completely cleaned up.

Pockets filled with crickets and frogs.

Broken windows.

Enduring the news that your son just had his first fender-bender – three times.

Stained clothes that cannot be explained, defined nor cleaned.

Letting your son stretch his wings toward becoming a man, hiding the sadness it causes you as you realize your baby boy is growing up.

And if those three boys happen to be my two brothers and me, well, that job gets even more difficult.

I never once remember my mother complaining about how raising us impacted her.

I suppose she just found a way to always see the best in us; looking back now, it is hard for me to imagine how she did.

For much of our childhood, my mother did all this and much more as a single parent.

Once again, she never complained about what she had to handle.

Scheduling her lunch hour around picking up kids from school.

Making her way in a job during a time when the glass ceiling was even lower than it is today.

Scraping and working to make ends meet.

Selling a personal ring to make those ends meet when the scraping and working weren’t quite enough.

Not for her own benefit but because she was determined that her boys would not be negatively impacted by the ending of her marriage.

She accomplished that and much more.

Celebrating someone this special should never be limited to just one Sunday a year.

Every little boy should be so lucky as to have at least one person in their life that can only see their good side – a person who somehow finds a way to look past all those rough edges little boys are bound to have seeing only a precious young man.

What a priceless gift.

My mother gave that gift to my brothers and me.

I do not recall ever hearing my mother say the words &uot;unconditional love,&uot; but that is exactly what she gave us.

How lucky we are, my brothers and me.

Tim Prince is the publisher at the Shelby County Reporter. He can be reached at mailto:tim.prince@shelbycountyreporter.com