On Other Mothers, T-shirts, and Thankfulness

Prompt- Who are the other mothers in your life, helping you find your way?

A few years ago when sons #2 & #3 left our house in Bend, OR to return home to Portland and Seattle, #2 son, Scott, was wearing a Timbers T-shirt. My hub commented that it was a pre-Alaska Airlines influenced logo. He had recently begun working for the airlines.
Chase gave me this shirt the last time we were together, Scott said. And he told the story again that we love to hear, but are sad for too, for Chase is no longer with us.
A few years ago Chase called Scott and said he’d be in Portland where Scott was living at the time, interning with OPB, and could they catch a Timbers game together?
I don’t have the money for that, said Scott, the starving student/intern.
My treat, said Chase.
And I’ve got nothing to wear.
I’ve got that too. And Chase brought him the T-shirt. It was on loan. Never returned. Worn with a deep sense of nostalgia now.
But it is the mother of my son’s friend that I think of, hearing this story. A mother who draws alongside other mothers, the way some mothers do.
She warned me once of an other mother who I thought was just another mother drawing alongside me.
No, she said, non-judgmental in her easy way. This is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
But I balked. The church doesn’t teach about this much, but they should. And I should’ve listened. But I couldn’t quite take it in, and suffered for it. That is another story.
This story is about a mother who was willing to step out on shaky ground and warn me, even if I couldn’t quite heed the warning at the time. The memory of it is tied up now in the sorrow of the son she lost, and my son who still mourns the passing of his young friend. And how some mothers make us more than we would be without them. They draw alongside us and and help us on our way.
Motherhood is terrific and terrifying and wonderful and woeful and we need all the help we can get.