What My Mother's Day Will Be Like

What My Mother’s Day Will Be Like by Debra H. Goldstein

With Mother’s Day only a few days away, I started thinking about what the day will be like for me.

Usually, there are flowers and cards from my husband and from two children and one grandchild. All four children will send cards; the grandchildren are hit and miss in that department. The four children will probably go in on a gift together, unless, for some reason, the girls are mad at the boys and they decide to each send something from their respective families (in the past the tizzy occurred the year after the boys forgot to pay up or when one, who was responsible for ordering the gift, left it until last minute and instead simply sent a Venmo message with money from all….not the emotional gift the girls envisioned).

In the past, there were telephone or facetime calls from each of the grandchildren with cameo appearances by their parents. This year, that might be replaced with a zoom meeting with all the families represented. That’s how we’ve been celebrating birthdays, Passover, and just getting together for the past month.

All will warm my heart, but they will be lacking one thing. My mother. Before I was a mother or a grandmother, I was a daughter. My mother taught me how to be a mother and a grandmother by example. She was loving, kind, wickedly funny, and somewhat opinionated, but she doted on her children and grandchildren. Her greatest joy was the time she spent with us. She’s been gone a little more than five years, but I still want to pick up the telephone can call her when something good happens or when I need a bit of cheering up. I miss having her as a sounding board. Most of all, I miss the joy of her sharing in the life cycle events of our family.

So, this Mother’s Day, I will joyfully celebrate with my children and grandchildren, but a part of my heart will be missing my mother.