Mom: Marion Newcomer, Kansas City, Mo.
Nominated by: Jennifer Wooten, daughter; Jason Newcomer, son; Nick Newcomer, son; Grant Newcomer, son
From Jennifer:
As I sit here, 8 months pregnant with my second child, I feel compelled to reflect on my own mother and the sacrifices she has made for my three brothers and I.
My mother and father attended college together and married soon after graduating. In the first two years of marriage, my mom gave birth to my older brother. Within the next 3.5 years, she had me, followed by my twin brothers. While we were all still young, she opened her own subrogation business that now employs multiple women in the Kansas City area.
In 2009, my mom was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, a chronic blood cancer. At the time of her diagnosis, 99% of her bone marrow was cancerous. During that difficult time, she contacted the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to find out how she could give back and provide support for others who were battling blood cancers. She began knitting “chemo hats,” which she frequently donates to the Kansas City Cancer Center. While many people would understandably be fearful, my mom seemed stronger than ever.
My mom is not only a mother to her children, but to anyone who needs her. She often shows her love from her kitchen – whipping up a cauldron of chicken noodle soup whenever she detects someone has a sniffle, making a batch of her famous beef stew for a family in mourning, and providing the soup kitchen with her massive 5-pound meatloaves. She is involved in our church, always striving to strengthen her relationship with God, and remains active with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. As a daughter and a mother, myself, I cannot picture a more loving, giving mother than the one that I get to call “Mom.”
From Jason:
My mother leads by example. She and my father attend church every weekend, and are very involved in community and charitable organizations. She gives of her time and talent to help others around her. Even friends of mine have referred to her as “mom.”
When my siblings and I were younger, our mother was always willing to come home after a long day of work and continue in her role as a mother. She would always make sure we were well fed with a fantastic home-cooked meal. In retrospect, I didn’t have enough appreciation for this. I can recall not finishing meals she worked so hard over. It wasn’t until I moved away to college when I realized how much a meal cooked by mother meant to me. I can remember coming home for the weekend, and on Sundays when I would drive back to Springfield, she’d send me on my way with a cooler filled with food. This made my roommates extremely happy!
One day my wife and I will have children of our own. Undoubtedly, they will be showered in gifts, toys, and clothes. All of those things are nice to have, but the most important thing she will give them is the same love and nurturing she provided for me and my brothers and sisters.
Growing up with two younger brothers and a sister, I did not get a lot of one-on-one time with my mother. After I graduated college, I lived at home alone with my parents. There were some nights during the week that it was just my mother and I at home. We had a lot of fun together, and it was a part of my life I will never forget.
From Nick:
There are a lot of qualities which make a woman a good mother: kindness, selflessness, generosity, but my mother, Marion Newcomer, is a great mom. She is an amazing and generous woman who has the ability to bring people together and always brings an air of happiness wherever she goes. My mother has taught me a lot over the years: how to be patient, to think of others before myself, and to always treat people with respect and dignity. But the most important thing I’ve learned from her is to always put my best effort in to everything that I do.
I am now 22 years old, well-employed and on my own, but just a few years ago I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. There were nights in college where I felt panicked about my future. I felt a lot of pressure and anxiety whenever I was confronted with new challenges and uncertainty, and the only thing I could think to do was to call my mother. She has always been patient with me and would let me vent all of my frustration until I couldn’t speak anymore and when I was finished, she would talk me down and make me feel like everything would be alright.
A lot of people would write about how nurturing their mother was when they were growing up, but my mom has continued to excel at being supportive when times get tough. I know that no matter where I am, no matter what time of night, or what sort of trouble I’m in, I can always count on my mother to be in my corner to help me through life’s trials.
From Grant:
My mom is one of the most genuinely kind and patient people that I know. Even as a kid when I did the typical dumb things that children did, but no matter what she was always on my side (even when I was wrong). Sure, she was tough on me when I would do poorly in school or get in fights with my siblings, but she was always there to help me learn from my shortcomings. My mother had wanted to be an English teacher when she was going through high school and college, but for a multitude of different reasons chose a different path. I can vividly remember struggling with English projects and the feeling of dread which came with weekly spelling tests. My mom always helped me through it, staying up past my bedtime and assisting in the uphill battle that was spelling “armadillo.”
The thing I’ll always remember about those long nights was Mom’s patience and genuine interest in my education, and true happiness watching me succeed; it also didn’t hurt that an A+ meant a trip to the comic book store.
Voting for the KCMB Mother of the Year award begins at 5 p.m. Saturday, May 2 and closes at 10 p.m. Tuesday, May 5. The mom with the most votes will be awarded our Mother of the Year prize package. Congratulations to all our finalists.
