Who cares about that nerd, let's hear more about Mom

We have a saying in the newspaper industry, and even though some people might consider me a Web monkey not a newspaper person, I beg to differ. I have run pieces of paper through a hot-wax machine.

The saying is that if you get one complaint or comment or congratulations, then there are a bunch more who feel the same way and are too busy or lazy to contact the newspaper.

I trust it is similar with blogs so when it came to my attention that one reader thought Mom was the real star of the blog, I figured I would feed the beast.

This is my favorite Mom story that doesn't involve me.

Mom is a lot older than one of her brothers, and when he got in big trouble at high school, the school called Mom because they could not get Gram. Gram and Granddaddy were at the store.

She got there and saw my uncle outside the office.

Two things: Mom was real conservative back then -- she voted for Nixon over Kennedy -- and my uncle was guilty of something Mom probably detested.

But she just looked at my uncle and he looked so lost, so alone that she went over and hugged him.

It makes me tear up just thinking about it.

But there's more.

I was just confirming the story with Mom and she said, You know about the car thing, right?

Mom was home with kids and no car. Her folks were at the store in their car. She called my other gram, who worked at the local rectory, to ask if she could come over and watch the kids. Mom was going to call a woman who babysat for us and cleaned our house to try to borrow her car.

But then a car pulled up and my other gram got out. The priest who was driving also got out and gave Mom the keys. She said he told her: not to let them get to you.