🙍🏼‍♀️
Jason liked networking.
He was a social being and over the years, his broken body often kept him from the stuff where he thrived.

The last few years of his life were some of his best.
He was healthier and stronger and more alert than he had been for years.
So, he started networking again.
He became an active member of the National Speakers Association, went to our local chapter’s Cougar Club events and joined the BYU Management Society.

I wasn’t into it like he was.
I was busy volunteering at the school or designing cut-files for Silhouette or just doing my own thing.
And I didn’t really like driving 40 minutes to eat lunch and listen to a speaker, no matter how exceptional or well-known or engaging they were.

But my mom did.

So Jason called her instead.
BYU Management Society lunches and Cougar Club events.
He called my mom first.
They met there or sometimes he would pick her up.
She often knew at least half the people and worked the room expertly.
She liked being with Jason. Cutting his food for him. Buttering his roll. Introducing him to her friends. Telling him a story. Fussing over him.
And he let her.
Then he invited her to come with him again the next month.

And when BYU finished a basketball or football game, Jason would get a call twenty seconds following the final buzzer. Just enough time for Mom to get to her phone and dial his number.

They would hash out the low points and celebrate the high points.
Every. Single. Game.

Jason was nice to my mom.
In a world where negative mother-in-law references run rampant, he was patient and loving and kind.
He created a shared passion.
They had “a thing.”

I am grateful that he made the effort.
That he took the time to develop something in common with his mother-in-law. That he cared about spending time with her. Shared memories together. Just the two of them. Without me.

They had their thing.

Happy Mother’s Day to both of our moms.
The one who’s been there for Jason since forever and the one who became “Mom” along the way.✊🏻💙