Happy 81st Birthday, Mom

~ My mom's high school graduation photo, Spring 1944 ~

She's lived through the Great Depression and five wars.

She was a "working girl" for 56 years.

She raised three children over the course of 38 years. She had a son in college and a daughter in kindergarten in 1973.
We all graduated from college, and I think she would say it's a small miracle her daughter has a diploma to hang on her wall. It was touch-and-go more than once.
She has eight grandchildren. The oldest is 29 and the youngest is 2.

She was my role-model as a working mom, and she was a single parent for most of my formative years. She worked hard and she worked every day. She had a full-time job and two home-based part-time jobs. We never lacked for anything.

I always knew she did the best she could, and it was always more than enough for me.
I stayed out of trouble not because of what I thought might happen to me, but because I didn't want to do anything that would dishonor her.
Her first choice in discipline was the look and a firm, "Because I said so". If that didn't work, then she got out THE STICK. There was no need for a third option.
A family friend used to say, "Your mother has an opinion about almost every thing, and she's almost always right, too." I usually didn't appreciate that when I was growing up, but I sure do appreciate it now!
She was always fashionable and pretty. She wore Estee Lauder makeup, black suede boots with high heels, and Clinique Aeromatics Elixir.
One day when she was about 75 she called me on the phone and said, "I think I've finally gotten a wrinkle".

She's still active and busy and sharp and witty! We email almost daily. (And, she even gets her nails done a couple times a month!)

Oh, how I miss her.... I wish I lived close enough so I could stop over for coffee on Saturday mornings and take little Adam with me so he could sit on her lap and give her a hug.
Once when I was 7 my dad forgot to pick me up from Sunday School and I had to walk home on a cold winter's day. I was crying and she wrapped me in a blanket, gave me a pack of M&Ms and held me on her lap and we had a good talk. I pretended I was cold long after I'd really warmed up because I wished I could sit on her lap forever.
Today I'd bring her an angel food cake and a vase filled with roses for her special day. I'd kiss her on her cheek and then take her out to lunch.
She's been my closest and most cherished sidekick longer than anyone else in my life.
I couldn't possibly ask for a better mother.

And I couldn't possibly love her more.