Moms Rock!

My 1st grade daughter gave me a hand-made card today, along with a hand-painted pot with a tiny seedling sprouting in it. The card said "Thanks for being so helpfol. YOU ROCK! Yore ono an omilion. Waht wood I do with out you. Yore so cool." (She's in a Spanish immersion program so is still working on spelling in English, but how sweet!).



Last night, on my pillow, was a card from my 10 year-old. "Mom, thanks 4 always being there for me."



My oldest daughter made a beautiful card with similar sentiments that can't be shared publicly.



I am so blessed, and yet today is bittersweet. For the first time in 44 years I can't look into my own mother's eyes and say "Thanks, mom." I can't hear her sweet voice, saying "Hi Page" with sincere endearment as she always would when I would call. As my oldest daughter moves into adolescence, I can't pick up the phone and ask "Did I do this? How on earth did you deal with it?"



But what I can do is pass on her memory to my own girls. We talk often about things grandma loved, especially as we've been moving my dad into his new home here in San Diego. Every single thing in every one of those seemed-like-a-million boxes has a memory attached.



What I can do is rely on my many friends and family who are mothers themselves. We really are a special club ... we share the joys, the pride, the frustation, the how-tos of every facet of motherhood. In many cases we become second mothers to each other's children - extending the network of support and providing such wonderful examples for our own children to learn from. Motherhood is friendship. Friendship is motherhood.



I recall shortly after my mother's passing, I was sitting in my office at work. I overheard a coworker talking on the phone, and she abruptly said "Mom, I gotta go," then hung up. I then heard her say "Oh my gosh, my mom's going to drive me crazy! She calls me at work all the time!"



Then another coworker chimed in. "I know, mine does too and I can never get her off the phone."



I couldn't resist chiming in myself. "Ladies, take a deep breath and remember how lucky you are to be able to have those conversations. Cherish them."



Happy Mother's Day!