Thank you Mom
Growing up Mother’s Day was a day we gifted crafts made at school.
We would dress up and go to church where the Knights of Columbus would serve a Mother’s Day brunch of scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon with a side of OJ.
I remember the year we didn't make crafts at school and I actually had to think of a gift for Mom!
When I was a teenager my best friend’s birthday always fell on Mother’s Day weekend. We would go to her cottage and on the Sunday, I would come home to my Mom in a mood.
I never knew if it was my lack of organization for Mother’s Day or the fact that I picked partying with my friends over her... Now as a mother myself, I’m sure the combination was heartbreaking.
In my late 20’s and early 30’s I would invite my Mom and her best friend Shona to my house for tea; I would make finger sandwiches, tea biscuits with raspberry and rosewater jam, and of course clotted cream!
One especially sweet year, Shona’s son and grandson came for the festivities. What a sight! A grown man with cinder blocks for hands, delicately drinking tea from my great grandmother’s bone china tea cups.
I truly did not understand what Mother’s Day was all about until I became a mother myself.
The first night in the hospital was one of the worst nights of my life. No one tells you about this thing called “gas” - you get it after having surgery. Air gets into your body and it needs to come out. My gas didn't want to come out!
I couldn’t breathe if I lay down and it felt like I had pinched a nerve in my neck. I couldn't look down while breastfeeding to help the babies latch.
There was poor Brent, trying to latch one screaming baby and sooth the other. It was chaos! To add to it all, like many brand-new moms, my milk had yet to come in, so we had two very hungry babies.
Once my mother found out about the night we had, she took the train into the city and came to the hospital where she spent the whole day and most of the night with me.
It was the first time I really thought I wasn't going to be able to do this “mom thing”. But my mom came in and momed me. It was exactly what I needed.
She walked the halls of the hospital with a baby in one arm and rubbing my back with the other. I cried because I finally realized what unconditional love was.
I realized how much my mom loved me and that some days, more than I can count, I really didn't deserve it. In between tears and cramping, I apologized for being such an asshole kid over the years and I thanked her for loving me through it all.
Mom’s put up with a lot of shit! Through it all, they love us anyway.
Mom, thank you for loving me, loving Brent, and loving Nina and Lawrence. A single day will never be enough to show you how much we appreciate you.
To all the mother’s out there - thank you and Happy Mother’s Day!
