Daughters cherish time spent with 'Mom'

Intermountain Catholic

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Lydia Cvar (center) will celebrate Mother's Day with her two daughters. JoAnn Holder (left) and Charlene Furano. IC photo/Christine Young

SALT LAKE CITY — JoAnn Holder and Charlene Furano will honor their mother, Lydia Cvar, on Mother’s Day with a dinner and by spending time with family.

Cvar, a member of Saint Ambrose Parish, was born in 1917 and raised on a four-acre farm in Magna with seven siblings. The family attended Our Lady Lourdes Parish. She met her husband while cleaning her friend’s floor for a wedding, when he came in and threw rice on the floor.

"We danced that night until 5 in the morning," said Cvar. "I remember his mother saying, ‘You take good care of my boy.’ We got married in 1943 and had three children: a boy and two girls."

Cvar taught her children the faith she learned from her mother, Mary Vaculin. "She was very religious," said Cvar. "Every day she would tell us the saint of the day and we always prayed before and after breakfast."

In 1957, the Cvar family moved to Midvale, where "Mama sang in the choir," said Holder, now a member of Saint Olaf Parish. "I remember while Daddy traveled we would go to choir practices and funerals so Mama could sing. I thought my mother was an angel for being in the choir."

The Cvar children liked going to church, said Holder. "Our faith grew stronger by being with Mama in church. We always prayed before meals. And after dinner, Daddy would always kiss Mama and thank her for such a good dinner. So we all would give Mama a kiss, and it was such a beautiful tradition."

Cvar was a homemaker, a wife and a mother. "My husband never wanted me to work," she said.

"Our home was perfect, meals were always prepared, and Mama was there when we needed her," said Holder. "Mama would sew our dance costumes and taught us to be seamstresses."

The girls liked dressing up to go shopping with their mother in Salt Lake City at Auerbach’s department store and taking the taxi to get there.

"We loved eating in the restaurant in the basement," said Furano, a member of Saint Thomas More Parish in Sandy.

The Cvar family did many activities together. "Mama didn’t drive," said Furano. "She didn’t get her driver’s license until she was 55, and then you couldn’t keep her from behind the wheel. Before that we always drove her where she needed to go."

Cvar’s mother lived with the family after her father died, as did Cvar’s father-in-law after her mother-in-law died. "Mama took care of them and sacrificed a lot," said Holder. "It was such a good example of her giving of herself for someone else and accepting her vocation in life."

Attending church was the most important Cvar family activity. "We looked forward to going to church, especially on holidays," Holder said. "We now take Mama to church every Sunday and to all of the activities at St. Ambrose."

"Mama taught us hard work and dedication for whatever we were given to do," said Holder. "Also that we can live our faith and our spirituality quietly by the way we live our lives. Mama is grace personified and keeps herself lovely all the time. There is an inner glow about her as she holds her mother’s rosary at church, so solemn and beautifully. I know that I am in the presence of a beautiful spirit, who has such a deep love for all of us and for God."