Happy Birthday Mom
3:37 p.m. x 2003-01-09
Today is my mom's birthday, and I don't think she'd mind if I told you she's 53.
She tends to think that's old but I don't think so. A year or so ago, I took her to the eye doctor and he told her "You're getting older and you need to be sure to get in here every 6 months for glaucoma tests." or something like that. Anyway, when I heard him say my mom was getting older, I almost told him off. She's still a young woman to me.
My mom listens to boy bands and Whitney Houston. She not only has lived long enough to have a crush on Julio Iglesias. Now she likes Enrique too. She wears pants that say bootylicious on the butt. She might be in her 50's but she's really cool.
She wrote me a letter for my birthday, telling me how much she loved me. She told me that she was sorry for the mistakes she made when she was raising me. I don't see it like that.
We all make mistakes. Parenting is hard work and it isn't something we know the answers to. I came out of it potty trained, knowing how to read, healthy, and feeling loved. Isn't that what matters? I don't hold it against my mom that she might have done this or that wrong. I admire her for doing her best when I did this or that wrong. I admire her for sticking it out when all we had to eat was peanut butter and crackers. I admire her for walking to the food bank. I admire her for working 10 hours a day and sometimes 6 on Saturdays, just to make ends meet. I admire her for calling me at night to tell me goodnight when I lived with my dad. I think of how she cried when I decided to live with him. I wish I had stayed with her now that its all said and done.
We were poor but we were happy and we found ways to have fun. We went fishing. We walked to the gas station. She would bring me along to parties for friends who were retiring from work and such so she could show me off.
I remember carrying paint cans back from Bob's Hardware and helping her paint the living room while we danced to music that only I should have liked.
My mom didn't drive until I was 21 so anywhere we went had to be by foot or by a ride from someone else... or by me when I got old enough. Those long walks seemed like a hassle then but they mean the world to me now.
I remember her crying when my children were born and showing them off as her babies. There was the time she came home with a dog for our birthdays.
I could go on and on but I won't. The point is, I love my mom and I'm glad she's here to celebrate this birthday. I hope she is here to celebrate many more.