She stands alone in the church kitchen, frantically scrubbing pots and pans while the grieving huddle around the fellowship hall, and she slips out the back door before anyone comes in. She is an anonymom.

She gets out of her car and picks up the trash thrown into the ditch alongside the country road. She is an anonymom.

She sits on the park bench, watching her children play. In the meantime, she continually scans the whole playground, keeping track of everyone’s littles, because that is what moms do. She is an anonymom.

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While the family across town is at the hospital, welcoming their new bundle of joy, she loads up her crew and goes over to mow the yard and trim the weeds. She is an anonymom.

When the news comes that there are unpaid lunch account balances or children who need a winter coat, she gathers the spare change and digs through the coats in the closet, dropping the things in the school office. She is an anonymom.

When she hears that the family down the street is going through a very hard time, she rifles through her pantry and buys groceries and then leaves a casserole and goodies on the front porch. She is an anonymom.

She takes her kids to the library at Christmas where they grab an ornament off the tree and shop for the elderly person or family who comes up a little short at this time of year. They go shopping and wrap the gifts and leave them at their drop-off. She wants to show the next generation how to grow up and be the anonymom.

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Our neighborhoods, communities, and nation are full of the anonymoms we all love and appreciate who fill that special place in our lives, at one time or another. Chances are you are the anonymom or you know someone who is.

It’s likely she wishes to remain the anonymom because, there is something very, very special about knowing people practice acts of goodness, just for the sake of doing it. And there is a lesson in that . . . for us all. May we all get the opportunity to practice being the anonymom in the places we call home.