Letter to My Mother

To my mother on Mother’s Day:

Thank you for deciding to have a fourth child, even though you already had your hands full with the first three.

Thank you for making my childhood magical with juice popsicles, homemade doll clothes, and sing-a-longs around the piano.

Thank you for Betsy and Tacy, Laura Ingalls, and Anne of Avonlea.

Thank you for Mozart, Beethoven, Bartok, and John Denver.

Thank you for letting me dress up as Annie nearly every Halloween but talking me out of dying my hair to match.

Thank you for marrying my father, at once the pillar of strength in our family and its wild card.

Thank you for raising three of my closest allies in this world and teaching us to be not just family but friends.

Thank you for setting me on the path of faith and teaching through example how to be kind, generous, and loving.

Thank you for guiding me through the rough patches of elementary school, the awkward moments of junior high, and the stretching years of high school.

Thank you for enduring so sweetly the superior attitude that came with my college years and not saying “I told you so!” when it faded soon after.

Thank you for allowing me to stretch my wings and fly so far from home and for resisting the temptation to pull me back to the nest, close and safe.

Thank you for always being available for a chat or a laugh or a cry when I needed it.

Thank you for always knowing how to tell over the phone when the meatloaf was done or what do to if I had forgotten to add the egg and when I should just scrap the whole thing and start over.

Thank you for being there when I became a mother myself and for being as interested as I am in how long my son slept last night or whether he is finally starting to eat vegetables.

Thank you for always knowing the right thing to say to encourage and comfort me.

Thank you for always loving me unconditionally.

Above all, thank you for being you because that is why I am me.

Happy Mother’s Day!