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.
You DO have a lovely mother. Hope her birthday is fabulous and that she continues in good health. Such wonderful memories you have, and continue to make.
She is closer to 90 than 80 now and remains my bff. She helped me with our pictures of Andy on our Dallas trip…thought it was funny and great fun. Your post of Andy’s trip through FL was perfect and gave us ideas for his TX tour…great job, Kate.
It’s early here, and I’m so glad I uploaded the right thing.
Oh, I’m so glad you included a recent photo! Your mother is such an amazing person: one we all would love to know personally!
It’s obvious you realize what a treasure she is….. and your bloggers know that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
Happy, Happy Birthday to your sweet mom.
Thank you, Dianna. I will be sure to pass your wishes along. I threw vanity to the wind posting this of her and me (no make up, hair blown, etc.) She always looks great.
She is sooooo beautiful…..and your portrayal of this giving women threw the years is like no other….Food bank at 80 something!!, she is the example of the backbone of our country, something so many have forgotten how to keep her working on the right path of our given freedom. And at the same time, being the Mother, Grandmother we all could long for…..Happy Birthday….
Thank you, Margie. I am so honored you stopped by and will tell Mom. Congratulations on your heroine tribute. I am so proud of you!!! Maybe this will be the year we meet up.
I’m so relieved – without contact lenses and before coffee, I read your title as “Mother Ill. I was so afraid something had happened to spoil the weekend.
But no, it’s only that it’s your third post, which I should have remembered, and a delightful one it is. I’ll have to check to see what a “Pronovia” might be, not to mention “ruching” – I suspect neither is something I’m likely to come across soon!
But those things don’t matter. What matters is the cheerfulness, the engagement, the curiosity and the continuing independence. Happy Birthday to your mother, and blessings to you!
Oh no this is definitely a third installment. (smiling) Rather than write one long tribute, I decided to post over three Sundays varying thoughts that in one post would be too disparate. Thank you for your kind wishes. I will pass them along to my mother. She will find your gravatar interesting as we had some very good friends who lived in Shoreacres.
It was early this morning when I posted and as I mentioned earlier, and I’m glad with coffee and my glasses on, I published the right item I had scheduled…Andy, the armadillo, has certainly been on my mind, also, this month.
I am actually rather close to Shoreacres, but my name came by another route. I love the beach and the water, but I also have spent some very good years on some undeveloped land between Kerrville and Medina. Hence: “shore” for the coast, and “acres” for the Hill Country land. The local connection never occurred to me until people started pointing it out.
ha…interesting…very logical and a fun coincidence. I understand your explanation perfectly. Our first pet was an English cocker named for some property we used to visit in Leakey (pronounced Lakey), thus our beloved roan English cocker came into the name Leakey.
A beautiful tribute to a beautiful woman … how blessed you both are! You follow in her footsteps perfectly, my friend, as you, too, do all these things you’ve said about your mom. Happy Birthday, Mrs. DeKanter – I know you’ll treasure this amazing tribute.
Thank you, Patrice. We are definitely blessed. That’s why I wanted to write over the month of March and not just once. I will tell Mom of your wishes. I’m so glad you could meet her at my milestone birthday.
Margie posted earlier. It was wonderful to visit with each other through commenting.
What a wonderful testament to a wonderful friend. She is beautiful and you look just like her. I am so happy that she is healthy — I thought the title was “the woman with a mother ILL (instead of iii). Glad I misread!
And happy birthday to your mom — many many more.
Oh dear, perhaps I should re-title. Thank you for the heads up.
And,…thank you for the birthday wishes. I will pass them along. 🙂
Just a beautiful tribute to your lovely mother. I loved the photo – you have very similar bone structures, I think, and are two beautiful ladies.
Happy Birthday to your Mom!
MJ
Thank you, MJ. I will pass it along. btw Mom’s mother’s family was from Canada. 🙂 Her mother’s family came from New Brunswick; her mother was first generation born in MN, then moved to WA. I have written so much about my father, it was time for me to write this “series”.
i SO loved this. she is a beautiful woman, and a gracious, giving soul, it sounds like. God has blessed you.
Thank you for reading, Theresa. Yes, blessed beyond words.
It’s been a pleasure to learn so much about your mother. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and memories of this wonderful woman. She obviously has done a marvelous job as a mother.
Thank you for following my near month long series. I have written so much about my dad, I had had scheduled to honor Mom in her birthday month. Yes, Mom most definitely “did families and her role as a mother.”
Georgette thank you for introducing your mother to me. She is a lovely woman both inside and out.
Loved your post about your dad. It’s very special to pridefully proclaim how much they mean to us, isn’t it? Especially, when they are still here. Once upon a time, I would have checked myself about being boastfull, but no, these family posts are to be written so the children, nieces, nephews and cousins know and maybe remember what is/was true. I am honored that our blogging community understands. btw Congratulations on your award at Emjay’s site. Very deserving as your topics and talents are so versatile, genuine and inspiring. Hugs! Your site has heart, a big + in my day. I can sail a sailboat, and you put wind in my sails too, from this chair that swivels and rocks.
I loved reading these little details about your mom. What an amazing woman. You are very blessed, Georgette. I hope she enjoyed her birthday!
Thank you for reading this last piece in this March series. The voice of details is fun, says a lot. Rather than write a narrative, I wanted to bring up exactly what you picked up on, the details that make us love her so. She is so engaged and does pay attention. I must say, your pieces inspire me to pick up on the overlooked details that ring out hilarious, fun, memorable truth. I must say, I am more engaged than I used to be, and your presence contributes to that. (yes, you may hear violins playing in the background)
Hilarious, fun, memorable truth–I love that, Georgette. Thank you for sharing these things with us, to let us know what a special woman she is.
Georgette, your mother is beautiful and inspiring. I bet she is very proud of the way you have honored her with your kind words and heartfelt sentiments.
Thank you.
Georgette — so beautiful. You have done your mother proud. What amazing and varied facts you have listed about her life. From your tone, I have no doubt they are part of a very full collection from a woman we all could take a lesson from. Such a lover of life, and contributor to this world.
This line was my favorite, “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!'” I can picture it, and picture the joy, and I thank you for sharing these tributes with us.
haha…I still remember the day she came along on the mission to find “the” wedding dress. Fun time. I’m so glad you enjoyed the tribute series. And, thank you so much for reading.
Georgette, it is so fabulous that you have this woman so vitally in your life. What a mom!
Thank you for reading. I’m writing as many family stories and memories as I can to produce a family book. If I go on and on about family…thank you for understanding…the family book is my goal.
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Your mom looks great! What a wonderful tribute to a special woman. This also reveals how special her daughter is, as well. Happy, happy birthday to your mom.
Thank you so much for reading this. There are so many facets to you, Peg, that this interests you, too. By reading and commenting, you encourage me to continue this family project…writing about family and telling our story. Someone proposed to me that I write fiction…change the names, include other variables…voilá fiction…hence the comfort zone I mentioned in my comments on your post, but right now, my mind won’t be still until I write for the kids so they know the people and the stories as I remember them.
Georgette, I think this is fabulous idea. So many of these stories just get lost from generation to generation.
When I went to visit my parents in Florida a few weeks ago, I sat them down on the couch, set my new tablet computer (w/video camera) on my knee, and just recorded them talking about their childhood, early marriage, family history, etc. This is about the 5th time I’ve done this in the last 8 years. The only problem is, I lack the technical ability to figure out how to get the latest stuff off my new, damn computer and onto any other media!
Good for you!!! 5 recordings so far; you’re awesome! Thank you so much for sharing your efforts on behalf of the family. If we don’t do it; who will? Re: your videos, You may want to try Windows Skydrive to upload videos. The size of those files are so large, you will want such an online “cloud” to save it to, so that nothing happens to it, not to mention the space it will save and it will have a static address that you can always access knowing where to find it. From Skydrive you can link to that file. Ask the tech guru at a local high school or community college for help. It will be very new at first, but then you can add it to your bag of tricks.
*dabs eyes*
Beautiful tribute by and for beautiful women!
Thank you, Deb. Thank you for reading about my bff…smiling…she translated Joan Rivers for us, but I had to translate bff last week for her. Your tribute to Dana is wonderful. I love it when wonderful writers like you, write the post I’ve thought about, but haven’t found the words yet. At 30 something you are very wise.
Georgette, this was wonderful! Yet another piece of history for your daughters, grandkids, their kids, etc. I will never tire of hearing about your family. As I have said before, thank you for allowing us to learn more about your family, too. I love the history lessons, the respect and the love.
Oh, and I look forward to Andy’s next installment. This Thursday, right?
Please hug your Mom for me.
Thank you for reading. Look for Andy 2 in your e-mail. 🙂 This is the one Mom helped me with on our trip to Dallas.
Your lovely and lively mother raised a wonderful daughter, you know! This was a true gem to read and I hope your mom enjoyed many birthday blessings with many more to come.
Thank you for taking time to read and comment in what I know must be the countdown for your event. Please accept my best wishes for a wonderful and beautiful, union and reunion of family and friends. PS You may remember the comment regarding the wedding dress originated in a comment I made to one of your posts. Through commenting and our conversation, more material for future posts bubble up. Remember?
I do remember that comment and I just loved what your mom had to say, “Now THAT’S a wedding dress!” Oldest daughter picked a dress like that, but you’ll have to wait until November for that pic. Middle daughter’s dress is a little more traditional but beautiful on her. We have a few more weeks until that ceremony, but it sure is getting hectic around here!
Hang in there!
Lovely women apparently run in your family. You both are beautiful. Espero que mis hijos piensan que yo no es mucho trabajo quando soy ochenta! (Okay, what I wanted to say is, I hope my children think that I am not a lot of trouble when I am eighty. How close did I come?). Great post! I would love to meet your mother.
It would be much fun to meet you with Mom. She goes to VA twice a year. Vamos a ver. I too, hope not to be a burden on my children when/if I reach 80+. Thank you for reading another installment to the family book. You are so kind.
What part of Virginia does she visit? Do you ever go with her? I will brush up on my Spanish before the visit if the two of you come!
She goes to Alexandria where my sister is, and Springfield where my brother is. I want very much to make a VA trip this year…but there’s this wedding in Germany in August for #1 nephew and AP scoring in June. No worries…we do English 90% of the time. I would love to meet you, lbstrang at latebloomingentrepreneurs and Dianna at These Days of Mine if I go this year.
We will make it happen if the opportunity arises!
So cool. I love your spirit. I will keep you apprised.
Thanks so much for introducing us to your mother. She is as beautiful as I pictured her in reading your posts, and her spirit and heart are truly inspiring. May she have many more happy, healthy years to paddle on the lake.
And thank you for reading, Carol.
What a rich and full life your mother has had and continues to have…she really sounds like such a remarkable woman…and how special that you get to carry on the family tradition of independent, feisty and appreciative motherhood….what a family you have!
Thank you for reading. We are so fortunate to have her, and I still consider her as my bff. She is really quite “with it” and we all don’t take that for granted.
Thank you, Georgette. I am blessed to have such a very thoughtful, caring, intelligent, perceptive, and beautiful daughter as you.
Love,
Mother
I hope you know you have always been my bff. Thank you for not minding that I post this. It had to be written. Please read the birthday wishes from my wonderful readers. Happy Birthday!
My apologies for coming late to the party. Belated Happy Birthday greetings to your Mum. Wow she’s an inspiration to us all! I think this is one of the most beautiful homages to a mother that I’ve ever read.
And I love the photo of the two of you!
Thank you for reading, Rosie. I had written so much about Dad, I was glad March finally arrived to write abut her. There’s a book there.
I’ve just now come back to read this. Your mother sounds like so much fun..a delight! I’m sure you’ll be just like her when you’re her age! I’m hoping I’ll be like her! Happy Easter!
Thank you for reading. Happy Easter with your family! Your glass bowls are lovely with a sister’s touch.
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