MAY DAYS

I can not believe it is a whole WEEK into May now.  Mother's day has come and the next holiday is Memorial day.  (For me atleast!!).  I don't handle Mother's day very well any more.  My mother died in April of 2005.  For the 5 years previous to her death (and 5 years after my father's death in 2000) I worked for Walmart.  A blessing (it was close to home) and a disaster (frankly I can't stand walmart any more and I rarely shop there ~ only as a last resort). WalMart believes that they are more important than family members, or any one else or anyTHING else.  When Sam Walton was alive they CLOSED for holidays.  Now they are open 24/7/364 days a year.  Christmas day is the only day they are closed !!! (Even NASCAR doesn't race on Mother's Day!!) And frankly I believe that WalMart will in the next 5 years or so be open on Christmas Day.  I was the phone operator at our store.  Worked days 7-4.  According to the WM handbook an employee was supposed to get atleast 1 Sunday a month off.  That's a joke.  Unless you were one of the privileged few that kissed enough ass to have EVERY Sunday off, you ended up working every Sunday.  The first year I worked there I worked every holiday and every Sunday.  Needless to say I am not accomplished at kissing ass (must be the red hair and temper!!) I ended up working every Mother's Day but 1 the last 5 years Mother was alive.  I found out I had to take a vacation day and apply for it months ahead to get that day off.  Don't get me wrong I did not mind working my fair share of holidays.  When I worked at the hospital, I worked every Christmas ( I felt it was only right since I didn't have any children to play Santa to.) I didn't mind rotating the holidays the rest of the time.  But working EVERY holiday just really pissed me off.  I guess it is the guilt of working the last Mother's days my mother was alive and her sitting at home alone while I worked that really puts me in a somber mood on Mother's Day.  I think if I had it do over again, I would have walked out of that job long before I did.  WalMart really does NOT care at all about their employees.  Frankly I think they believe in slave labor (must be why they love China and other similar countries so well and use them to produce their merchandise).  The only reason I go to a walmart any more is because I can not get the merchandise I want or need ANYWHERE else.  period. My motto is "ANYWHERE but there". 
 I hope that all of you that still have your mothers (or the person that acted as your mother) went to see them today if at all possible.  At least call them.  Talk to them.  One day the only way you will get to talk to them is to meet them in heaven. 
Mary