On Mothers

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I have two mothers who are more important to me than almost anyone else on this planet (they’re tied in rank with my Father and my Son). A bit of tribute to them in no particular order.

My Mother. I call her Mom, but refer to her with the more formal term. Maybe it’s the Quaker genes that she passed on to me. I have no complaints [1], in fact I have the highest praise. You taught me to ask questions. You showed me how to investigate candidates for office. You also taught me how to cook.[2] You may be Connecticut Yankee, but (as Aunt Mary-Pearl said) you’re almost as good as a Southerner. You put up with our jokes , and even pulled a couple of your own. You never put up with crap, though. More recently, you took the time to come down to the new house, and help Mrs. Magill take care of Fang while I was down here, and she had no day care to send him to. To top it all off, you and Dad came down this weekend, and watched Fang, so Mrs. Magill and I could actually go out on a real date. You also told me you liked my pancakes and biscuits.

My Wife. Fang’s mother. That is a little boy who loves his mother. My praise for you is difficult to articulate. The only way I know how is to tell you that you make me very happy. Best of all, you tell me that you like it when I’m happy. One day, you’ll come to your senses, and realize you’re too good for me. Just one way you’re the best: Sunday morning, while I was making breakfast, you forbade my father from going to the grocery store to get more milk. You then made a detour to the Panera to buy a box of coffee for everyone, and you don’t even like coffee. I count down to the end of May when I can finally move up to Charlotte and join you and Fang full time, instead of the weekend.

Happy (belated) Mothers’ day. I love you both.

[1] Well, there was that black eye you gave me when I was eight, but that was more of a life lesson as to why you shouldn’t run behind someone wearing Dr. Scholl’s wooden sandals. It was also a hands on demonstration where I got my natural grace and balance.

[2] I am still waiting for a copy of the cookbook you made for my sister.

2

We had lunch at my sister’s with my Mother for Mother’s Day. She brought along a bunch of old cards and stuff that she had kept from our childhoods, and we spent a while looking through them.

The gem of the collection was a Mother’s Day card my sisters made and gave to her when they were about 10 and 8 respectively. The cover read “Mother, You brought us up and spanked us, Made us eat our spinach and sent us to school, And we love you for it”. Inside, it read “Anyone else we would have punched in the nose, Love Sue & Deb”.