This is a story about the most wonderfully unselfish mother of all. Motherhood started abruptly for Lyn Shipman. Twenty-eight years ago, Lyn married for the first time to me, Skip Shipman, a man with two children from a previous marriage. I had custody of my eight year old son, Josh when I met Lyn. My daughter lived with my ex-wife at the time.

When Lyn agreed to marry me, she became an instant mother to my son, Josh. It was difficult for a young 26 year old to take on the duties of a bride and mother simultaneously. However, Lyn never once complained and learned to love Josh as if he where her own son. The feeling was mutual on the part of Josh. He loved Lyn as if she was his natural mother.

Lyn went beyond the role of a step-mother. The bond between Josh and her was extraordinary. She instilled in him her values, sense of accomplishment and, most of all; she taught Josh what the love of a mother was all about with her devotion as a real mother. Josh, as the years passed, looked to Lyn as any child does with their mother for comfort when he scrapped his knee or ran a temperature at three in the morning. Her loving care is one of the reasons Josh has grown to be a loving husband, father and son he is today.

Lyn and I tried having a family of our own, but on two separate occasions, Lyn’s pregnancy was to no avail. Even though Lyn was denied children of her own, she did not waiver in her duties as a mother. Day in and day out, she sacrificed her career to be a stay at home mom for Josh. Her Irish Catholic upbringing dictated that she should put family before her career.

Josh was an honor student and an all state athlete in high school. He won a baseball scholarship to Duke University and went on to start up his own successful software company once he graduated from college. It wasn’t until Josh graduated from college until Lyn resumed her career. I bought her a florist for a Christmas present in 1998; Brenda’s House of Flowers in Woodstock, GA. Lyn absolutely loved it and poured every waking minute into making Brenda’s into the premiere florist in Cherokee County. Lyn was named Business Woman of the Year in the county and runner-up for Northwest Georgia, while Brenda’s was selected “Business of the Year” by our local Chamber of Commerce. Brenda’s has been a Teleflora “Top 50” sender for the past 9 consecutive years now.

Josh married and now has three children of his own. The reason for telling about Josh and his family is simple; this is how Lyn became lovingly known as “Froggy”. Josh’s first born was a little girl named Maggie. One day while Lyn was babysitting for Maggie and by the time it came for her to leave, Maggie and Josh decided that Lyn was to be called Froggy. Every time Maggie said Froggy, she would burst out laughing and giggling. Hence, all our grandchildren now call Lyn, Froggy.

Now that Lyn, I mean Froggy, was not only a long time mother, but a grandmother as well. She has been the typical grandmother to Josh’s three children, Maggie, Taylor and Grayson to the point of being absurd. Going over board on birthdays, the holidays and any day for that matter…

What makes Lyn so deserving of being Teleflora’s Favorite Mom began four years ago this past April. That February, Lyn lost her mother after a nine month bout with cancer. Not long after she buried her mother and without even having time to grieve, Lyn and I got a phone call one afternoon in spring of that year that would forever change both of our lives.

As mentioned previously, I had a daughter, Brandy, form a previous marriage that grew up living with her mother. Brandy had very little contact with our family over the years. We did know she had two children, a 3 ½ year old boy named Gabe and 1 ½ year old girl named Jade. Ever since Gabe was born, both Lyn and I tried to see Brandy’s children, but were never allowed access to them. After finding out my daughter was mixed up in gangs and drugs in Houston, TX, Lyn and I tried desperately to gain custody of the children via the Texas Child Protective Services agency to no avail.

The phone call… Early afternoon on April Fools Day, I get a call on my cell as I was driving to the flower shop. The call was from Houston saying both of Brandy’s children were at a certain address and if we wanted them to come and get them or they were going to be turned over to the state. I asked what had changed? I was told that Brandy had finally been arrested and was in jail. Without hesitating, I told the caller we were on our way.

I immediately called Lyn, told her about the call and asked her to meet me at the airport here in Atlanta. Lyn met me at the airport and we were soon on a flight to Houston. We rented an SUV in Houston with baby sets already installed ready to roll. Lyn and I drove to the address given me and knocked on the door…

Standing in the door way was two of the most beautiful babies we had ever seen. This was the very first time Lyn and I had ever seen the children. We did have a poor photo of Gabe, but that was it! I grabbed Gabe and Lyn scooped up Jade. We buckled them into their seats and away we went to the airport and flight back to Atlanta. Everything these two small kids had in the world fit into their little back packs…it didn’t even fill them up!

After the fact, we found out that they had been living in the back set of their mother’s car and occasionally they stayed in a cheap motel from time to time. They had never been to a doctor and hadn’t been potty trained. Lyn and I cried just hearing them tell of the life they had lived in the few short years of their existence.

My daughter-in-law, Hilary, a great mother in her on right, made an appointment for the kids with her pediatrician the very next day upon our return to Atlanta. We had them completely checked out and given all their shots. Lyn took it upon herself to go on a shopping spree for the kids. Holy cow, I didn’t think she could have put so many clothes, baby bottles, diapers, toys and such in her van as she started unloading everything she had bought.

For the last three years, Lyn has again become a mom for these two children. Changing diapers, getting up in the middle of the night to make sure they had their medicine, waking up as the sun was coming up to feed them a hearty breakfast and getting them off to school. As Lyn always said, education is the key to their success. This is why she enrolled them in the best private school in the area.

Lyn and I are now in our fifties and believe me, it has been a life altering experience raising to infants at our age. Lyn says she now knows why her mother always said that raising kids are for the young, not the old. Lyn has gone from almost ready to retire to becoming a born again soccer mom!

The most remarkable part of this story has not been told yet. Lyn has raised my son from the age of 8 to manhood. She has been the ultimate grandmother Froggy to his three children. And, now she is the only real mother Gabe and Jade has ever known. She has devoted her entire married life to actually raising 3 children as her own, while being a wonderfully caring grandmother to all 5 of my grandchildren. Having done all this is remarkable in itself…But now for the really remarkable end to this story of love, not one of these children is blood related to her. It is one thing to care for, love and raise your own children, but to raise someone else’s children is something else…

That is remarkable enough, but I want to take it one step further. Lyn has NEVER, let me repeat, NEVER once complained or questioned taking in my children or my grandchildren to raise as her own. When I made the decision to head to Houston to pick up Gabe and Jade, she could have asked me if I really wanted to take on all that responsibility, but she didn’t. All she was concerned about was their welfare and what she could do to provide a better life for them. If there is a place in heaven, she certainly has earned it.

The title of this story is “Froggy to the Rescue”. How appropriate, Lyn has come to the rescue for Josh, Gabe and Jade by devoting her life to them as their “Favorite Mom”.

Furthermore, I have nominated Lyn for “Teleflora’s Favorite Mom” as a labor of love…Because; Lyn has rescued me as well by being my wife….

Written with love and appreciation,
Skip Shipman
Lyn’s Husband