So I mentioned in another thread that Yesterday was my Mom's birthday. It has been almost 10 years since my Mom passed and not a day goes by that I don't think of her and my Dad, both were great people (as I am sure many of your parents are or were).
I have told the story of my Dad on here before, he really had two jobs his entire life 20+ years in the USAF (WWII, Korea and Vietnam) and 20+ years as a professor at Miami Dade College.
But I just wanted to provide a little background about my Mom who was a Pioneer in her own right.
My mom was born in the Bronx and my Grandmother did the best she could after my Grandfather left them, but they certainly did not have a lot of money. My mom was determined to do something to get out of that situation and she managed to go to NY City College and got a degree in PolySci. As a woman back in the 1940s - 1950s having a degree meant you might get a slightly better job as a secretary, but still not much more. Not being satisfied with those prospects she decided to do something that was totally unusually for a woman to do back then. She joined the USAF. She was one of very few Female officers that were not nurses in those days. She was actually an Intelligence officer and spent time as a Teacher at OCS in Biloxi, MS (where she met my father). My mom and dad were married in Biloxi, the wedding had to be pushed forward because my dad had gotten orders to deploy to Korea.
Back at that time if you got pregnant you had to get out of the service. So when my mom got pregnant with my sister she had to leave the service (something she was very unhappy about). Still not wanting to stay with the trend of being a stay at home mom that most women followed in those days, she went back to school and received an MS in education with a specialty in ESL and Reading. When my father retired from USAF we moved to Miami and my Mom got a job as the ESL and Reading Specialist at the Miccosukee School in the Everglades, she drove 40 miles each way to work everyday for 15 years. She could have gotten a job much closer to home, but she felt she could do more good out there.
She retired from teaching but soon got board, so she ended up teaching ESL and Reading at the Chrome Avenue Detention Center (yes she taught convicts). Even after my parents totally retired and moved to Key Largo, my mom could not stand being "useless" (her words, not mine) so she volunteered at the local Elementary and Middle school with at risk kids. Her and my dad also travelled extensively around the world many times flying space available on military aircraft (not the most comfortable way to fly, but she never complained).
She was truly an amazing person and I just wish I could tell her how much I appreciated her, even though I was a total PITA growing up. So here is the moral of the story, for all of you that still have parents that are alive, this Thanksgiving, let them know how much you really care about them now, while you can, because someday, it will be too late.