Mother's Day

Wow, its been a *really* long time since I've posted. I've been meaning to post for a while now but the photo business and life in general have been crazy busy. I did a shift swap yesterday so I could go to our annual family reunion. So, in order to go to the party (also a welcome home party for a cousin home from Afghanistan)... I had to work Mothers Day.

It was a non-stop shift from 12N to 1230 in the morning. Literally non-stop. No dinner. Bathroom breaks were envied. It was mostly for legitimate calls and 2.5 hrs of that time was on a 2-alarm apartment fire. That pretty much made it all bearable. My only prayer was to not have any cardiac arrests. Anytime anyone dies, it is a tragic thing for family. But for a child to lose a mother, or a mother to lose a child... on Mother's Day... the tragedy is compounded.

Unfortunately, it was something we became a part of. A family, whose mother was in hospice and had a DNR, called us out of panic when their mother passed. We stayed until PD arrived and while waiting learned that one daughter had just lost her 30-yr old son just a few months earlier. My first thought was, "Lord... she must be an amazingly strong woman for you to have given her this much to bear at one time."

I remembered back to my dear sweet grandmothers. I lost both my maternal and paternal grandmothers within 4 days of each other. On the afternoon of my maternal grandmother's funeral I went by to visit my other grandmother and brought her a strawberry milkshake, her favorite. We had a nice visit and I cried a bunch... she had suffered so many TIA's that her aphasia was extreme. Looking into the eyes of someone you love who knows what they want to say but it just wont come out is utterly heart-breaking. To this day it breaks my heart to have seen her such turmoil. But the smile on her face when I tipped the straw to her lips was beautiful. That night she died.

Our Mothers, our grandmothers, our great-grandmothers if we've been blessed to know them... they love us. Unconditionally. They nurture us, they kiss our heads when we ache, they hold us til the pain subsides, they laugh at our flimsy jokes, they bake last minute cupcakes and they run late-night poster board projects. They shape us into the women we become and the women we choose to have in our lives.

I hope you adequately conveyed to the special mothers in your life just how much they mean to you. How much you love them and how different your life would be if not for them. Without my Mom, I would not be where I am today. She has taught me how to cook like Julia Childs, laugh like Sally Field, what its like to have the grace of Audry Hepburn, and to love like nobodies business. I love you Mom!