Half of a Mother's Day

Last year, with my son away at school and my experiencing my first Mother's Day without a Mom, it felt like half of a Mother's Day.  Maybe less.  No longer able to celebrate my own mother, my mother-in-law no longer recognizing me, my son away at college . . . I wanted the day to hurry on by.  Fortunately the whirlwind of my daughter's senior prom and impending graduation carried me along in continual busyness so that I was able to push all those miseries down under the surface.

This year I was struggling with missing my beloved Mawmy (even at 50 I still think of her name as spelled that way) and so when M. had a performance that weekend it was a great reason to make a visit and stay for Mother's Day.  And we went to church with her, and the pastor talked about how God uses even dysfunctional families and genuinely awful moms to raise terrific people, some of whom even end up walking in faith.  And suddenly all of my lonely hollow mom-missing feelings were gone and I was just grateful for the memories.  A little dysfunction, sure, but mostly painting and dancing and building forts and climbing hills and building sand castles.

And then it felt like a complete Mother's Day.