Dixie Clifford has a lot of reasons to be happy right now — 10 to be exact.
Being named Mother of the Year by the Utah chapter of American Mothers Inc., the centuries-old nonprofit group that established Mother's Day in the United States, did not make the list.
"The title's nice," Clifford said, eyes glimmering with emotion as she lovingly stroked the glass covering an 11-by-14 photo collage she keeps in the living room. "But these are the reasons I smile."
The 72-year-old beamed as she pointed out each of her three children and seven grandchildren in the photos. The little blonde with the impish grin is Bethany Hope, she said. She was named "Hope" because she was the product of in vitro fertilization. The dark-haired boy with the wide, round eyes is Lincoln, after his father and grandfather. He recently got involved in sports.
"He has just blossomed," the grandmother gushed.
Clifford adds, smile wide, that both of her daughters have at one time held the title, also bestowed by American Mothers Inc., of Young Mother of the Year in their respective states.
Good mothering must run in the family.
Clifford certainly attributes many of the qualities that earned her the title Mother of the Year to her own parents.
"When you grow up in a peaceful place, you just want to grow and become all you can," she said.
Like Clifford, who boasts a six-page community service resume including two missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, her mother was a homemaker and community activist.
"I grew up in a home where the community was at the door," Clifford said.
"For the good of the kids, we learned, you had to take a responsible part in making the world a better place."
Clifford's mother treated her with kindness and consideration, even when she was just a small child. Clifford tried to follow her mother's example as she raised her own offspring, she said. Now that they are grown, her daughters use the same core parenting techniques.
"Lots of time, effort and love, that's what I recommend for raising children," said Cristi Bulloch, 48, Clifford's oldest daughter, who lives in Las Vegas with her husband and two children. "That's how my mother did it, and that's how I'm trying to do it."
Bulloch has devoted a good amount of her spare time as a stay-at-home mom to promoting family values in Nevada by helping to organize the state's National Family Week celebrations.
"The key to successful parenting is really making the family a priority," she said. "I learned that from my mother."
Bulloch and her sister, Kathleen Fueston, 45, remember growing up in a house where the family did everything together. They cleaned together. They did homework together. They played together.
"On Saturday mornings, Mom would wake us up by playing classical music on the piano," said Fueston, who lives in Lehi with her husband and two sons. "That was our call to get up and get working on the chores."
Because of the music, the family had a good time lugging buckets of soapy water around the house washing walls and "anything else we could reach," Fueston said.
Growing up under Clifford's care was more than just fun, though.
"I always knew she loved me and that if I wanted to accomplish something and I worked hard, I could do it," Fueston said. "She instilled self-confidence in me."
All the women, Clifford, Bulloch and Fueston, agreed that teaching children autonomy is the most important lesson one can teach as a parent.
Although Clifford describes the day her last child moved out of her home to go to college as the hardest time of her career as a mother, she has never been so proud of her children as she is now that they have their own families.
"They are my children and my angels," she said, hands tightly grasping the corners of her family photo collage. "And now they are also my friends."
E-MAIL: estuart@desnews.com