So, it is Mother’s day. I don’t have one anymore, so I don’t celebrate it. I celebrate puppy day and kitty day. Last year the dog gave me the mange and the cat gave me cat scratch fever. I asked the cat if it had been hanging out with Ted Nugent and it went back into the closet sulking. Haven’t seen it but twice this year.
But mothers are special. Mine was truly great. Her parts wore out at 91. That’s old. I mean I used to think 91 was old. Now that I am 60, it is looking a lot younger. When I am 91 I want to fly over Everest. I never want to climb that rock, too cold and too hard, but I’d love to fly over it. Same is true with K2 and Kilimanjaro. Just give me a quick trip over it in an airplane or helicopter. That will do.
I remember, I asked my mom once in her last year on Earth, is there anything you regret not doing? She thought about for a while and she answered, “Raising you correctly.” I think that was the night we began adjusting her oxygen down. She looked good in blue.
No, my mom was a great person. She would encourage us boys to do anything we pleased. Especially in the arts. “Be creative” she used to say. “Build something with your hands. Make something.” I took woodworking in junior high school and made her a bookshelf. After I gave it to her she changed her mantra. “Make something useful with your hands. Something that doesn’t wobble.” She still had that book stand on the day she passed. It was being used as a door jam onto the porch. It still wobbled.
Moms have something called unconditional love. That means there is nothing you can do that will drive their love away from you. Nothing. Well… there was that lamp from my great, great grandmother that I managed to destroy running through the house one night. I noticed that my name had been stuck through her will right after that and replaced with the phrase, “If still living”. I refused to take any unopened drink from her for a year after that. But she got over it. Well, not so much her, but I was able to use a really good printer and redo the pages of the will, so it didn’t matter so much.
My mom was in a circle of mothers as I was growing up. They used to meet every week and discuss things. I was always curious as to what they talked about while us kids were away at school. So, one day I asked her. She looked at me and said, “Mothers want to know if other children are as crazy as their own. So we compare notes.” My curiosity was growing. I wanted to know how I had done on this crazy scale. So again, I asked. Mom studied me and said quietly, “When it comes to normal, you are closer to second than you are first.”
I miss my mom. Miss her a lot. And I hope you got to squeeze your mom today and tell her you love her. And if your mom is gone and you can’t, I understand the empty feeling you had. But isn’t it nice to know, that more than likely, your mom…and mine…still love us.
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