A Mother's Love

Mom and Dad's Wedding Day

They say pets provide unconditional love.  Though I highly agree with this statement... I also say moms provide us with that too.

This past weekend we celebrated Mother's Day.  That special day where you tell the woman who suffered through hours of labor, months of additional baggage carrying you around, and years of constant joy and pain to love, protect and cherish us mini-humans who resemble them.  I'm all about giving props to these women!  Don't believe many people would disagree either, because no matter what, that's the woman who brought you into this magnificent world... and you damn well better apreciate that.

I've told you about my mom in previous posts.  Becky is awesome!  She is so sweet, caring, loving, funny, gorgeous.  She is SuperMom to the MAX!  Mostly becasue she had to put up with us three kids.  Kudos Beck for not killing us.  Well at least Jay and Phil... I'm the good one.  ;)

My most recent story on how amazing she is comes in light of the Marathon Bombings. 

After the events of April 15th, my world was a bit shaken.  Screw a bit, I was a downright mess! 

Venice 2005

As I explained in "Let It Out", the bombing was just too close to home.  So was the inevitable takedown of the Tsarnaev Brothers... especially with Dzhokhar being found just 2 streets from my house.  Working in news made it difficult to avoid the constant reports of every... little... detail that was being found about these guys and their history. 

Eventually, it all became too much.  I would start crying for no reason.  Every night I would have nightmares involving bombs, losing my friends, and not being able to find a way out of the situation.  I wouldn't want to go to sleep, nor would I then want to wake as I was so exhausted.  I soon started doubting life again and didn't want to be here.  It was all just so overwhelming.

After one particularly bad night, I kept emailing mom trying to calm down.  During the back and forth, mom started saying that maybe for Mother's Day she could convince dad to let her gift be coming to see me.  I was totally down for that.  And before I knew it, she emailed me her flight info... she was flying in the very next day!

Newport 2013

She stayed with me for four days.  I took her to Newport to tour the mansions.  We went shopping (as we do every time we see each other), we cooked, we worked on a puzzle.  It was great.  Most importantly, we just enjoyed each others company.  I just needed my momma, and she knew it.

How many people can say their mom dropped everything to fly halfway across the country just to give them a hug?  I can!  That's why Becky is amazing!  Plus since she left, I haven't had a single nightmare.  Talk about Momma Magic!

Though she never wanted me to leave home, she was able to see how much I enjoy life here, which in turn made her happy.  And though I didn't want to leave home, I'm glad my family is still so supportive from so far away.

I love my family.  I love my mom.



Christmas 2012

As a mother's love is passed from one mom to the next... I wrote my mom, asking her to tell me what she loved about grandma.  Here's what she wrote:

There are so many memories of my mom that make me smile.

 

Mom would go out of her way to help others. I remember one Easter Sunday at Fort St. We were leaving the church and there was a homeless woman standing across the street. Mom went over to her and gave her $20. It was so touching to see the homeless woman's reaction when mom gave her the money. She thanked her over and over again.

 

Mom was a charter member of Heritage Hospitals "Pink Ladies". She was in charge of setting up the chapel in this new hospital. She picked out the tile, carpet, paint, pictures and furniture. When she was finished it was beautiful. She spent many years volunteering there and touching so many lives. After she died the hospital named the chapel after her. A very proud moment for our family.

 

I loved being with her. She taught me what being a family is all about. She was from a family of seven. I grew up with lots of aunts, uncles and cousins around all the time. We spent weekends at Aunt Dorothy's lake house singing around the bonfire, roasting marshmallows, playing games and listening to stories about their youth. Mom and Aunt Dorothy would sing "Keep Young & Beautiful". They sang this on the radio in Detroit when they were little girls. Every time they were together they sang this song. Even when mom was in her final stage of cancer in the hospital, Aunt Dorothy came to visit her and they sang "their" song one last time.