My Mother – Happy Mother’s Day – Okay, I’m a Little Late

I know its the day after Mother’s Day, but I’ve been thinking about my mom a lot lately.  I posted about her on Facebook yesterday and I don’t think it was enough.  Currently my mother is in a nursing home.  A stroke left her unable to use her left arm and leg.  That same stroke also altered her personality and left her impatient, angry, and saying anything that comes to her.  Its not a pretty picture.  Because of distance, I will see my mom today.

What I really want to do is remember my mom for who she was.  Growing up my mom used to take us camping.  Dad had to work and mom got more vacation time than he did, so she used to take us camping for a week with one of the other families.  We’d spend the week at the beach, swimming and hiking.  It was so much fun and there were plenty of kids for us to play with.  The cool thing was that mom did this for us.  She went out of her way to help us have a fun summer.

Mom fought for us when we needed it.  At school she didn’t let people give us grief.  She was a room mother, a den mother.  She helped with scouts, plays, went to choral concerts.  When my high school choir toured Europe when I was seventeen, she put in countless volunteer hours to help pay for it.

My mom wasn’t a joker, but every now and then she could be funny as hell.  A few years ago we were at my brother’s and he grinned and told my mother that since we had to try everything at dinner growing up, she needed to try the Brussel sprouts.  Her response is the picture below.

Right now I have tears in my eyes because I’m being flooded with memories of all the things my mother did for me.  I know I wouldn’t be the person I am today without her.  And lastly, my mom was a reader, which she can’t do any longer… She instilled in me my love of books.