LANCE FRY / Scroll Illustration Mothers from across the nation are coming to Rexburg for Mothers’ Weekend to spend time with and visit their children. By doing this, they are able to strengthen relationships, Sherri Fife, a freshman from Atoka, Tenn., said.

Mothers journey from far away to visit their children for weekend

by Becky Boushley BOU02002@BYUI.EDU Scroll Staff

“She misses me bad,” Laura Green, a freshman from Bessemer, said.

With Mothers’ Weekend approaching, many students not far from home are preparing for their mothers to drive up and visit for a day or two, but some students are preparing for a unique arrival.

Like cousins, roommates Green, Helen Clememts, a sophomore from Buchanan, Ga., and Michelle Acker, a junior from Buchanan, Ga., are hosting their mothers together.

“We have been planning this for a long time. They got their hotel room at the beginning of last semester,” Clememts said. “We already have tickets for Extravadance, Michael McLean and the Sunday night fireside.”

“I’m just looking forward to the time that I get to spend with my mom. I will probably have her go to some of my classes with me. I think that it will be equally good for both of us because she misses me and I miss her, and this will give her a chance to see my living conditions,” Green said.

The weekend is also an opportunity to strengthen relationships.

“Personally me and my mom aren’t the closest of friends, so this will give us a chance to bond. It will be good for both of us, but especially for my mom to see me away from home and see how I have grown up,” Sherri Fife, a freshman from Atoka, Tenn., said.

“It’s a three-day drive but she is flying out on Wednesday and leaving Monday or Tuesday of the next week. She will be here for a while, so it will be fun because we are going to make like a week long vacation from it,” Fife said.

When a mother comes from such a long distance, it really is a demonstration of the love she has for her child.

“[Having my mother come from such a long distance} proves to me that she loves me that much to come. It proves to me that she is willing to take time out of her busy schedule and spend money on plane tickets just to come see me,” Andrea Bishop, a sophomore from Tyrone, Ga., said.

Although it is far away and mothers are taking the time and money away from their families back home, it is worth it for them to come and see their children whom most have not seen since Christmas, Clements said.

“My mom found about the weekend from a lady in our ward back home. Up until that point she wasn’t going to come because she really didn’t know about it,” Fife said.
“I did not even have to invite my mom. I think she just assumed that we wanted her to come. It will be worth it. She’ll get to come, and see [BYU-Idaho], and hang out with me and my sister mostly. We are going to most of the concerts and Extravadance, probably about half of the events,” Bryan VanEvery, a sophomore from Allen, Texas, said.

“It is a 27-hour drive, but my mom is flying, and she will be here from Thursday to Sunday. My sister is up here, so it is probably mostly for her, but it will be nice for her to see her kids up here in college and how it all works. Mostly she gets to have fun,” VanEvery said.

Overall it seems that distance does not matter. No distance is far enough to keep a mother from her child.