One of the most common relationship descriptors in a cemetery that you will find is “mother.” Seeing these tombstones makes me remember how lucky I am to still have my mother.
My mother and I have always been close. When I was very young, I stayed with my grandmother while Mom worked, but Mom made the decision to stay home once my brother was born. I had a stay-at-home Mom until I was a freshman in high school, when she went back to work as a secretary at one of the middle schools. So my childhood is filled with memories of playing with Mom.
My mother taught me my love of baking, letting me mix the Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie batter. She read to me, not realizing that she was teaching me to read – she finally realized one night that I was not reciting the Nancy Drew mystery from memory, but was in fact reading along with her. She told me when I was singing sharp or flat, much to my annoyance at the time – even though I know she was right.
On cold winter days, she would call us in from the cold to hot cocoa fresh off the stove. She sat through countless school concerts and plays. Once I went to college, we talked every week, and we began to save certain activities like decorating the Christmas tree or going to certain stores for when I was home to do them with her. She hates a photo I have of her from my college graduation because her make-up is smudged and her eyes are red, but I like it because I know she was crying because she was proud of me.
We talked more often when I was in graduate school and living alone than we do now. We both have full time jobs and active social lives and husbands, and she is a grandmother, but there are still times when I have to call her because she is the only one who will understand what I need to talk about.
Today is my mother’s birthday. I am so very grateful for the many years we have spent together and for the times yet to come. I hope that it will be a very long time before I have to try to sum up in a few words for posterity what my mother meant to me and how much I loved her.
A Grave Concern 