Today is Mother's Day. My mother never made a big deal out of it, saying that every day was a mother's day and she did not need any special day or gifts to remind her. So she never got breakfast in bed (and who would dare to mess up her kitchen anyway!), or flowers, or potholders, but she did get kisses and of course, the gifts that we made in school over which she gushed as if Picasso had just gifted her with an original.
So what is a mother? Well, she is also a Ma, Mama, Mother, Mommy, Ima and whatever the word is in whatever language one spoke. She is the one who took care of you, who made you special treats when you did not feel well, who yelled at you to do your homework, and the one who made you KNOW you were special if you had a bad day.
Mothers, I read, can push your buttons because they are the ones who gave you those buttons in the first place. Mothers are the ones who think that at age 10 you are a grown up so you should behave better, but also think, no - know - that you are still a child at 32 and 64. Mothers are the ones who will call you 6 times a day, annoying the heck out of you, but the same person you will call six times a day to just feel better, to let her know you are home or have reached your destination, or to get some sympathy. Mothers are the people who no matter how ill they are, will inquire with great anxiety about your paper cut or some other minor issue and will urge you to see the doctor even as they neglect to go.
Mothers are the most frustrating, loving, important and needed people on this earth. They are the ones we call by a pet name, a nickname we made out of love and they are the ones that we so deeply miss on this and all days when they are no longer with us.
It is two years that my mother is gone. She lived a full and rich life, wealthy in family and friends, in love, but at the end, even as she still worried over her children and grandchildren, all she really wanted was her Natie, the love of her life since she was 14 and he 16. Just after Passover two years ago, he came for her and she went with his name on her lips along with a smile. So my Ma was gone, my Nellie, (my name for her), and two years later I am still picking up the phone to talk to her, to tell her something I know she would like to hear and my sister does the same thing. Value your Mom. Cherish her memory.
I miss you, Nellie. I love you more than words can say. Happy Mother's Day and don't drive Pop too crazy up there.
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL - TODAY AND EVERY DAY
Esther - what an amazing tribute to your Mother. Today, I too, am thinking very much about my own Mother and how proud Great-Nana would have been of her grandchildren (and maybe me too!).
ReplyDeleteEsther-that was amazing as Dorothy said. As I am reading and thinking back to my own Mom and both grandmothers I sit here and cry. They also were like that to me when I was a child and as I was growing up. If it wasn't my mom calling it was my grandmothers. I cherished them all for their love. Happy Mothers Day to you also.
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