This is the last installment of my birthday celebration for my mother. I have written about her during the month of March as we observe another milestone birthday.
If I am a baby boomer, my mother is a supersonic boomer. When I read a former classmate’s status update on fb, back in July 2011, that she had just heard the double sonic booms when the Shuttle Atlantis landed at the Cape, I thought back to the days when my mother and my father had raised us there. Reflecting on the years, I thought, “Mom is a boomer…a supersonic boomer.” At the time, she was helping me gather items for my post regarding the legacy of NASA. How blessed I am that she continues to support my interests…once a mother, always a mother.
She has transcended time. She remains current and sharp.
For her 80th birthday we got her a paddleboat for the lake.
She hasn’t missed a graduation, high school or college, or wedding for any of the grandkids.
One day out of the week you’ll find her interpreting and translating at the food bank.
If there’s a roadtrip planned, she’s on board and no maintenance.
It tickles her no end that low maintenance runs with T-Bob too…she will laugh out loud and loves to tell other folks how he can jump to the kitchen sink, lean in on the faucet lever to get himself a drink of water.
When daughter #2 went shopping for wedding dresses and tried on the ole traditional dresses, then stepped out in a strapless Pronovias with ruching…Mom’s comment, “Now that’s a wedding dress!”
When the entertainment news was all a twitter about a recent Joan Rivers’ tweet about an unnamed starlet, it was my mother who wrinkled her brow and “explained” it to the rest of us.
To this day she remains beautiful. Her beauty is arresting, very natural with only lipstick. She knows how to dress, loves perfume (Blue Grass by Elizabeth Arden), loves roses. She sets a beautiful table and calls us to gather on important occasions, holidays and birthdays.
She drives herself everywhere even at night (we scold her), she loves Ellen DeGeneres, calls us before we call her. She did give us a scare a couple of years ago, already in her 80′s. She landed in the hospital for reasons unclear. The doctor dismissed her after a couple of days of observation declaring, “I wish I was in as good a shape as you.”
“Ahhhh…eres la niña de Elena,” my mother’s bilingual friends comment when they meet me. “Sí soy su hija,” “So you’re Ellen’s daughter?” “Yes, I’m her daughter”, I answer with pride and gratitude.
Mom, we love you.
My mother and me last week
