A Salute to Mom

I am sure we all have different ways of celebrating Mother’s Day. Some families probably go out for dinner; some probably have a big party and maybe others treat their mom to a day of pampering.

The hard part for many of us, though, is not being able to celebrate Mother’s Day with your mom because she has passed away. Now please don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to bring anyone down just before the special day this Sunday; but the sad fact is that there are a lot of people all around the world who don’t have their mothers with them. I am one of those people.

My mother, her name was Barb by the way, passed away on April 10, 2006. Thankfully she wasn’t in pain, hooked up to machines in a hospital or anything like that. She was in an assisted-living facility, however, and for all intents and purposes passed away quietly in her sleep. To be more precise, her heart finally gave out.

We lost my dad back in August of 1994; and every year after that, I worried it would be her last because I couldn’t imagine her living for very long without him. They were that kind of couple: inseparable. They were married for 38 years at the time of my dad’s passing; and each year her health slipped a little bit more. But she was stubborn. She held on, remarkably, for 12 years, living her life as happily as she could…one day at a time.

Rather than dwell on the loss I still feel – same days heavier than others – I want to focus on one of the best things my mom (and dad) ever did for me when I was a little girl. It may sound crazy, but due to her own health issues, as well as my own, my mom (and dad) placed me in front of a television set when I was a young girl as a way to not only entertain me but to also appease me because I was physically unable to play outside with the rest of the neighborhood kids.

If my mom (and dad) hadn’t done that all those years ago, I have a feeling I would not have become the TV-obsessed, drama-series-loving viewer and writer that I became. It may have taken me a number of years to fully realize that I was a TV-obsessed, dramas-series-loving viewer and writer, but I owe my mom (and dad) for all that I have been able to do over the last 7 years. And, I cannot wait to see what the next 7 years hold.

I hope that each of you have a wonderful Mother’s Day with your moms; and for those of you who, like me, have lost your mothers, I hope you have fond memories of her!