For all mothers everywhere ...

Strictly speaking, once one becomes a mother, every day thereafter is our day.  But some countries set aside one specific day during the year and call it Mother's Day.   That day most commonly falls in May and this year, Mother's Day is today, 9 May.  So, wherever you are, all you Moms, please have a wonderful one!

This was a day that HWMBO always remembered even without prompting when his mother was with us and with good reason.  He was born in Grafton, West Virginia, where Anna Jarvis officially created Mother's Day as a US holiday in 1908, just two years before his own mother was born.  For him, it would have been a sacrilege ever to have forgotten.

I lost my mother in August 2002 and miss her still, even though most of my adult life was spent physically far away from both parents.  Her name is still included in my email address book.  I do not have the heart to delete it and probably never will.  Sometimes I think of something that I'd like to tell her ... and then I remember that I can't ever do it again in any mortal fashion.   I do like to believe that she hears my hopes, dreams and prayers.  I also hope that she knows that I always did love her, even during the worst Sturm und Drang years of my adolescence.  This is one of my favorite photos of Mom and Dad with me in Glacier Park in 1999, one of the last times where the three of us were together.

Even without my mother, I have always been extremely fortunate to have surrogates in my aunts, especially those aunts who are sisters of my mother.  My mother came from a family of seven sisters, three of whom are still with us today: my dear Aunt H, Aunt L and Aunt E.  My father had two sisters; only one, Aunt De, is with us today.  My Aunt Do and Aunt J, wives to his brothers, are also still here.  Thus, I am sextuply blessed with aunts.  I hope that each of them has a wonderful day today.  Thank you each and every one for enriching my life and always showing love and support!

Of all my aunts, I am closest to my Aunt L.  She served double duty, because she was my godmother as well as my aunt.  I also boarded with her family when I attended high school in the "city," instead of in my rural home town.  Because of this, her own daughter was in many ways more like a sister than a first cousin.  So this is a very special thanks to my very special Sweet Aunt L.

Finally, I am blessed with three sisters, all younger than I, and a truly great sister-in-law.  All are mothers as well.  One sister, Healer Sis, will achieve grandmother status later this year and is absolutely thrilled at the prospect.  She has been practicing her grandmothering skills with my own grandson, Prince Tyger, who is all the richer for it.  My most heartfelt thanks cannot even begin to express how much I owe each of them.  I hope they realize how much I love them all.  Here my sisters and I are with Dad, also in 1999, with my nieces Sweet E and Sweet B, and Nephew J.  Those "young'uns" are "grown-ups" today.

To complete the "mother" figures whom I am fortunate to have in my close family, there is one daughter (whom I share with HWMBO), and four wonderful daughters-in-law, two, Sweet D and Sweet T, also shared with HWMBO, and two, Sweet H and Sweet M, married to my own sons.  Each of them has added something unique to my life, not only in the grandchildren they are raising, but in their own special presence.

We mothers, whether related or not and no matter where we are, are all connected.  We are all strong and beautiful women with more in common than not.  We must never forget that.