Letter to Mom

Dear Mom,

I would not be who I am today if it weren’t for you.  I have so many wonderful memories of my childhood.  You let me scrape my knees, stay out until the street lights came on, play on metal slides, ride a skateboard without a helmet, suck on candy cigarettes because it was cool, play at friends’ houses without knowing their parents & cross a busy street to walk to school.  You made the best slip & slides out of black trash bags.  I was a latchkey kid & learned to scramble eggs when I was seven years old.  I still make the best eggs in town (thanks to you)! You expected me to do my chores & homework before I went outside to play, but once I was playing I was expected to stay outside until dinner.  My friends & I would often play down at the riverbanks unsupervised, catching crawdads & tadpoles.  I came home filthy, starving & exhausted.  It was awesome!  I ate the food you put on my plate, took a bath every night & never talked back.  Or at least that’s how I remember it… I got my work permit when I was 14, I kept good grades and played sports in high school.  You charged me rent when I turned 18 (brilliant!).  And you still call me every year at 6:30am to sing me happy birthday.

But I’m also appreciative for the hard times we lived through as I learned responsibility, family values and also the gift of laughter.  For as long as I can remember, you and I can make each other laugh hysterically at the drop of a dime.  People probably think we’re a little coo-coo, but they’re just jealous.

I’ve always been able to tell you anything without worrying about you judging me.  Now that I’m a mother of two daughters, I’m getting a glimpse of how difficult some of those conversations must have been for you!  O.M.G!  How did you do it?  I will be calling for advise shortly…

The last few years have presented extreme challenges that neither of us were prepared for, but the silver lining is that we get to spend A LOT of time together doing our “laugh therapy”.  Now I know that all the laughing we did growing up was actually bootcamp!  Who’d have thought just driving to a doctor’s appointment could be so hysterical?  Or getting lost on our way to the doctor’s appointment would be even funnier?   Of course we take things seriously, but we don’t let it ruin our day.  We take the bad head on with laughter & love.  So far, so good!  What is so wonderful about our relationship & our experiences together is that your granddaughters are witnessing the perfect example of how a mother-daughter relationship evolves & deepens over a lifetime.

Mom, I love you with all my heart.  Respect, unconditional love, independence, humility, perseverance, self confidence, compassion, inner strength, sacrifice, conviction are just a few of the words that come to mind when I think about all that I’ve learned from you.  In return, I hope my children learn these values from me and grow up to be strong women.  It’s in their blood!  Thank you for being my mom.

Love,
Christie