Mother

Yes, we called her that. That's what she called her mother, so it seemed to be what one did after one graduated from "Mommy."

There are not enough words in cyberspace to capture our mother in print. You will never get a good picture of who she was. If I describe to you the laugh, the vibrance and the sheer wonder of her personality, and somehow capture that aspect of her (which I doubt I could do), you would never be able to round out that picture with an accurate aspect of The Crazy. Since it's Mother's Day, or will be by the time I hit post, I will skip (for the most part) The Crazy, and focus on the Fun. Because the woman was fun.



She enjoyed being the focus of attention, but she loved having the swirl of activity around her in a group. One night at a family reunion when she was so exhausted she couldn't stay awake another moment, she said goodnight to everyone and then admonished us "Y'all have to go to bed now! No sneaking around having fun without me!"

She was a terrific hostess. So much that the day before we had to be out of her house of 20 years, we had a party to celebrate it with her friends. Only one of the friends we called didn't think it was a fabulous idea; everyone else came with very little notice.

Her sense of style & bearing was such that when she realized at the end of a business trip that she could make it to a party at the High Museum and went straight there (wearing her long denim skirt and pink Reboks, I'm sure), no one blinked an eye at her attire. She realized later it was black tie.

In her mid-40s, she took up crewing on C-15s. In this video the crew is the person with their rear end just a foot or so off of the water. I'm about that age now, and I am not about to pick up that hobby. (This is just a random video off of the internet, she is not in that video. It's just an example of what the crew is so you can see how crazy it is.)

She was getting it together, I think. She was not equipped in some ways to handle what life brought her, and it took her longer to learn some of the lessons she needed to learn. And yes, she had a flair for the dramatic. It was not out of character at all for her to die on Mother's Day, although as I tell her frequently, it's not like we wouldn't remember her if she'd picked a different day.

I could tell more stories. All damn day, I could tell stories. I've tried to tell the stories, both of The Wonder and of The Crazy, to my kids so they have a fair picture of life. Some of The Crazy can wait, of course. Some of The Crazy they are getting a taste of, because I learned how to be a Mommy from her. I hope they are tasting The Wonder as well.