I Miss My Mom

Photo gratefully borrowed from Anne Taintor

Mother's Day is a hard day for me. I lost my Mom to kidney disease almost three years ago and today, especially, I miss her a lot. She was a brave, smart woman of the 50's and raised two brave, smart daughters. I miss her big smile every time she saw me and her incredible sense of humor. She loved a practical joke and I remember one Saint Patrick's Day when she used food coloring to dye our neighbor's cat's white bib a bright green, then sent him back home. She told us not to tell who did it, that it would be a surprise to our Irish neighbors, but we were little kids and couldn't keep a secret. She could take a joke as well as give one, and April Fool's Day was chaos in our house. Everyone was trying to top everyone else's tricks.

The photo above was something that she would have done. She loved to cook and loved to watch people enjoy what she created in her kitchen. The only time she refused to cook (in later years) was on Thanksgiving. She didn't like the fact that, after spending all day cooking, everyone gulped down the food and ran back to the television to continue watching football. She wanted people to sit at her table for a long time, enjoy seconds, thirds, more wine, and good conversation. She and my Dad entertained often and Dad worked with people from all over the world and brought many of them to our house for some good old home cooking.

She suffered a lot in her last years. Her failed kidneys required that she have dialysis for 3 hours, 3 days a week. It exhausted her. She had to be on a resitricted diet, which frustrated her, but she managed to figure out how to make what she could eat delicious. Her body declined and she made her own decision to stop the treatments. More evidence of her bravery.

So, thanks Mom, for all you did for me and for letting me be who I needed to be. For understanding when things didn't go as planned, and for loving me the best way you knew how.