Mother's Day!
May 09, 2004
Every now and then you get these experiences that just fly you back to old memories and open the doors for wonderful new ones! Every mother's day since Alex was born, he and Jim get up and make me the most amazing breakfast, eggs scrambled with onion and garlic, mushrooms and tons(literally!) of american cheese! Oh and of course the MAGIC ingredient, really good kosher hot dogs! My very large dog lives with my parents, and it's my job to walk him and feed him everyday (that's his room and board payment!), so I decided to get up and walk him first and then come back for my gourmet breakfast!
So I drove to my parents house, got "Wolfie" and walked into the back yard. There is no adjective available that can completely describe describe my mom and dad's yard. Alex comes the closest I think when he calls it one of the most enchanted places on earth! My father has such a green thumb! Everywhere you look are beautiful things, special plants that you've never seen before, things that I am sure are brought there by the Fairies! This morning though something caught my eye that I hadn't really seen for years.
When I was a little girl, every mother's day I would race into the yard, and my chubby fingers would start to hunt through the ivy and myrtle for the Virginia Bluebells that would poke their lovely faces through spotted, sun dappled leaves. I always picked them for my mother on that day, thinking how perfect they were as a mother's day gift, all cheerful pink and blue.
When I grew up and got married and had a son of my own , mother's day changed a bit as we added our own traditions. Yet this mother's day is a bit different. My parents are older now and will probably be selling their beloved house this year. As my eyes set upon the bluebells, I realized that this was probably my last chance to pick them for my mother on this special day. The little girls chubby hand reappeared, grab a huge fistful of the happy little flowers. Running into the house, sneaking past my mom in the bathroom, I grabbed her little Warterford vase and ran into the bathroom where she was putting on her makeup. "Happy Mother's Day , Mommy" I said and proudly handed her the flowers. She looked at me and smiled and said, "Oh , isn't amazing how they've always bloomed on Mother's Day, ever since Stephen was a boy and used to pick them for me!" Over and over she said, "Isn't it amazing that they always bloom on mother's day!" I was so happy when I saw how much she loved them, and when I left to go home I began to cry.
It's amazing how magical the little things are when you allow yourself to see them, and when I walked through the door of my home I saw Jim, Alex and our adopted son Zack (Alex's best friend!) standing in the kitchen making my mother's day breakfast. We sat at the table eating, laughing and listening to Garrison Keilor on National Public Radio. It was a whole new mother's day memory having Zack with us . We keep Oreo cookies around for him, and our couch is fondly referred to as "Zack's Couch! " He comes and goes in our house as he pleases, walks the dog for us and generally lives here every weekend. Alex has been blessed with the loyalty of his friendship since they were young boys, and there is no more LOYAL friend than Zack. After breakfast he got up to leave and I settled down to do some writing. About 2 minutes later, he came bursting back into the apartment with the most beautiful pink gerbera daisy plant that you've ever seen, and a card. "Happy Mother's Day" he said. " "You may not be my real mom, but you're definitely my mother." I hugged him tightly, and burst into tears.
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