Monday, May 7, 2012

Happy 88th Birthday To My Mom!

This is my Mom! She is 88 years young today. The picture was taken at a small family brunch we hosted in our home. My daughters gave her the silly beads and hat! She is just the sweetest Mom and such a good sport. I feel so incredibly blessed to still have her with me. She suffers from Dementia, so some days our lives are like the movie "50 First Dates". When she is having a good day it is wonderful. She remains in her family home with aides. She has always been one of my closest friends. She kept the Mother/Daughter boundaries, but she was still my friend which meant so much to me as a teenager when so many girls hated their Moms. She married her pen pal from WWII and he passed away 19 years ago. She is a Christian, a patriot, a great role model, and a strong family matriarch. I feel so blessed for the values that she has instilled in me. I am thankful for the times she slapped my "fresh" mouth. I am thankful for the times she told me how disappointed she was in me for my bad behavior - I hated disappointing her and I worked to keep it to a minimum. She was not a "anything goes" type of Mom, she had standards and her children all knew it. I thank her for the courage she instilled in me.I remember the first winter I was driving and she had fallen on the ice and broken both of her wrists. I was really thrown into action. She told me that she had confidence in me and if an accident occurred than that is why we had insurance. I never worried again. I thank her for pretending to be able to hear my little voice singing at choir concerts. She said I did a great job and I believed her. I tried that trick with my daughters and they laughed at me - saying, "sure Mom, you could hear my voice....sure!" I thank her for my shoe collection - she always said you can do ANYTHING with new shoes on. So before speeches, interviews, any big event that I felt nervous about - I bought new shoes to wear and I did fine. I even bought new sandals to wear to the hospital to deliver my first baby. LOL. On a serious note - I am thankful the times she was my strength. She was on the next flight to me when my husband moved. I am thankful that she stayed with me and helped me sort out the pieces of my life when I didn't know where to turn as a stay at home mom with two little girls who needed to sell our dream home and start my career again. After she got us settled in our new place she took us to the ocean on a vacation to relax. She said we needed to start having fun again. Even my daughters admire her. When my oldest daughter was thought to have a heart problem, the first person she wanted was "Grammy". My Mom had a quadruple bypass and a valve replacement in an emergency surgery the year after my Dad died. We almost lost her. She said she wasn't ready to go yet. She still had "lots of work to do!" My Mom is the mixture of feminine and strong. She is everything I aspire to be. Thanks Mom and I love you!  

2 comments:

  1. Your mom is just beautiful in every possible way, and your tribute is beautifully written. Happy Birthday to an amazing lady!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Katrina for the lovely and thoughtful comment!

    ReplyDelete