Residents offer moms advice for Mother’s Day

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) -Being a mom is no easy feat, but two residents at HeatherWood Assisted Living and Memory Care wouldn’t trade that job for anything.

“I love children and I love my sons,” HeatherWood resident, Marie Jeffries, said.

Jeffries is a mother of six boys. Her words of advice were to give lots of love, but to also discipline children. She said her sons are well-behaved because she had them doing chores from a young age.

“Well after I trained them it wasn’t bad at all,” Jeffries said. “Cause they said mother this is women’s work. I said if you want to live in this house you’re going to be a woman.”

For Heather Wood, resident Elaine Hagen, giving lots of love as a mom is a sentiment she shares, but adds it’s also important to let things go.

“Do things with them,” Hagen said. “If they make mistakes give them a hug and get on with it.”

Both residents encourage people to make their moms or mother figures feel special on Mother’s Day.

“Well, it certainly makes you feel better if you hear from them and keep in contact,” Hagen said.

“I just love them so much and they keep telling me what a great mom I was,” Jeffries said.

Although Hagen has plans to celebrate Mother’s Day with her family, some moms at HeatherWood will be celebrating with each other.

“We are actually planning a tea party for the residents next week, and it’s so fun,” Life Enrichment Director, Kaufua Xiong, said. “We have party hats and this is where my shopping addiction comes into play. I bring in all my dresses and we get them all spruced up.”

Xiong said the best thing people can do with residents on Mother’s Day is to spend time with them.

“I feel like we live in a world where we can be so consumed in self, and giving them that time, I find a lot of times they just love sitting and reminiscing,” Xiong said.

Even Jeffries thinks back on fond memories she has of raising her boys.

“There was a big tree outside, they slept upstairs, and I found out after it happened the oldest one was using that tree to sneak out of the house,” Jeffries said. “Well, I contracted a tree man to cut it down.”

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