Happy Mother's Day 2013

Mom 1964

I wasn’t going to write about Mother’s Day this year. It’s all been said—a million times. Then, this week I received a call from my best friend Renee, whose mom has been very sick since having heart surgery. There were times that Renee thought she would lose her. But this week, after six long months, she turned the proverbial corner and announced to the world, that she was going to stick around for a while. When I talked to Renee's mom, Elsie, who I have always considered a second mom, she didn’t sound like a frail 80 something woman, but her old sassy pants self, at forty. This alone was newsworthy and Mother’s Day writing material.

Then today, I found out my mom’s best friend, Gloria, passed away. She was a statuesque beauty with a quick wit, and a no nonsense personality. Her daughter is one of my older sister’s best friends. We lived two houses down from them when I was little, and Gloria and my mom were like Mutt and Jeff. Tall and short, two beauties, always laughing about something and I can still see them in the kitchen of our home, taking a hacksaw to my mother’s cast, (that she was wearing because she kicked my Dad and broke her toe.) They were laughing so hard I thought they were crazy.

My first thought upon hearing the news was that now she would be with my mom, and her husband and all of her loved ones that passed before her. I don’t believe in heaven (or hell) but I do believe that souls find each other.The yin and yang is not lost on me with one gain and one loss, and somehow gives me comfort, that there is balance in life.

The natural order of things is that our parents should die before us. My parents died young, and of course, every Mother’s Day, and many other days I miss my mom. She was a little crazy, and not always a stellar parent, but she was a force to reckon with and I think she may have passed that gene to me. I mostly remember the good stuff. That is how it should be.

On this Mother’s Day I want to give a special shout out to my Marine Mom’s. You have all endured my rants and craziness when it comes to supporting our troops and now our veterans and many of you have encouraged me to keep up the fight. I will. I always will. We may not always see eye to eye on politics, but our common denominator is troop/veteran support and that will always be paramount.

There are all kinds of mom’s in the world; birth moms, adopted moms, surrogate moms, step moms, friend’s moms, auntie moms, dog moms, kitty moms, harried moms, mellow moms, sick moms, health nut moms, Marine moms, Navy moms, Army moms, Air Force Moms, helicopter moms, crazy moms, quiet moms, saintly moms and what my son once called me (and I have no clue why) exciting moms. 

I salute them all – Happy Mother’s Day