Weekend Assignment #58 Mom

The picture is my mom, my son John and me on the day John married Krissy.  It's probably not the best picture, but one that shows 3 generations.  My mom passed away nearly 8 years ago, and I surely miss her.  I tease about looking like her, but I'm very proud to be her daughter.  She raised 4 of us pretty much on her own.  My father left before I was born.  She swallowed her pride and let her parents help until I started school, then went to work.  She never complained that she was lonely or hated to work.  She gave everything she was to her daughters.  She never remarried.  I always thought it was selfless of her to stay single, but it must have been terribly hard for her.  I surely didn't do that! 

As we honor our mothers this weekend, I will be honoring the memory of the most wonderful woman in the world.  Don't get me wrong, she wasn't perfect. While all of us were still at home, she often had to shout 2 or 3 names before she got the one she wanted.  She smoked most of her life, drank sometimes and slept on the couch with the TV on.  I guess that's where I got that bad habit.

The good side was this:  I never asked a question that she didn't answer truthfully.  Even about sex when I became curious.  She wasn't graphic, but always answered in a way that I could understand.  When my friends' parents were avoiding the questions, they would come to me and ask me to ask my mom.  I never told her that her answers were going out to half the teen crowd.

She did funny things, like getting lost on purpose, making fun of herself before others could and thinking up silly games for us to play.  She was laughed a lot and taught us a few "naughty poems" to share when we were old enough.

I could never hope to be the woman that my mom was, but it is she that helped me see how important it was for me to be the mom I am.  I made a few gazillion mistakes along the way, but I'm happy and proud to now be a mom, grandma and great-grandma to a bunch of great young people.

And yep, when I was young, I did have an uncanny resemblance to Janis Joplin.  We won't mention the singing part. John already did that.

While I'm here, I want to wish a very happy Mother's Day to my daughter, Heather, my daughters'in-law, Krissy and Michaela and to Dixie, who I love as if she were my true daughter.  You guys are doinga wonderful job and I'm proud of you.

To the rest of you moms out there:  Keep up the good work!  You've got the most important job in the world.

And Mom . . .I miss you more than I can say.