Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mother's birthday.  She is 17 years older than me.  She finished high school, married and pregnant with me. Then she went to college, pregnant with my brother who is 18 months younger than me.

Next my dad went to college while she taught, in an inner city school in Nashville, Tennessee.  She broke up a fight in the middle of the street. The little black VW bug she drove caught on fire and made the morning traffic report.  She took us to Shakespeare in the Park; there's a newspaper clipping with a picture of me and my brother -I wonder if she still has that.  She took us to the library but would make me put my books down to go out and play.  There was this place called Steiner Lift, an old warehouse where fabric could be purchased cheaply.  I spent a lot of time in the car waiting for her as she shopped inside because kids weren't allowed in (if she did that today, someone would have called CPS!).   Mom made a lot of my clothes back then.  She sat with my brother when he fell out of the tree and had to spend the night at the hospital.  She wasn't too keen on football but she went to my brother's games and cheered him on.

Then we moved to Warsaw, Indiana.  She got a job teaching and even though her school was way out in the country, she still managed to find out when I screwed up and got in trouble; that's some network.  We rode our bikes to the lake and walked to the grocery store, and the library, of course.  She would fix breakfast for the swim team at 0-dark thirty, then drive to her school and teach.  She'd grade papers in-between my swim events.  She made my Senior Prom dress.

Our family hit a rough patch when I went to college.  We didn't get along very well for a few years.  And thank the Good Lord, we came out on the other side, a little worn and a lot weary but still in tact, still a family, albeit a scarred one.  That which did not kill us, made us stronger.

Her next destination was Virginia Beach, Va.  She'd been there a couple years when I made her a mother-in-law. She wasn't quite hip on my choice of a husband until she saw him holding my head out of the toilet when I was having a case of morning sickness that lasted a long time. She made maternity clothes for me. Ten months later, she became a grandma.  She was still teaching but this time it was teaching teachers how to integrate technology into their lessons and classes.  After her first grandson was a little older, she'd take him on trips with her.  She dyed his hair blonde and listened to his secrets.  When she found out she was going to be a grandma for the second time, she got the first grandson a dog.  Somewhere in there, she got a job working for a fruit company.
















She was in the Labor and Delivery room when second grandson joined the world. She kept him at home when he was a year old and his daddy's ship was coming home in bad weather; and when we went on a Dependent's Day Cruise and he couldn't go because he was too little. One Easter she hid eggs in her condo for him because, again, the weather was too bad for Easter egg hunting. She's played countless rounds of The Ladybug Game.  She bought a Wii, just for the grandkids - she's not above bribery!   She's been to lacrosse games and even more football games, not to mention countless piano recitals.  She's traveled with Grandson 2, taking him wonderful places and making memories with him, just like she did and still does with Grandson 1.

I have learned so much from this wonderful woman.  I am thankful she is my mother. I hope I'm as good a grandma as she is.  I love you Mom.

And today, her birthday, we are at the most Wonderful Magical Place on Earth eating our Ghirardelli's Hot Fudge Sundaes and celebrating - Her!