Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms reading this. This will be my second Mother’s Day without my mom, and I’ll be thinking of her all that day — as I do every day. I have so many funny stories to share about her. She was a larger-than-life personality with a quirky sense of humor, and an almost rabid loyalty to her family and the company she worked for her entire adult life. An incredibly resilient two-time breast cancer survivor, she was an inspiration to her many, many friends. Her eleven grandchildren called her “Nana,” but she did not define family by blood relationship. Stepchildren, adoptees, even close friends of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren became family to her. They all knew her as Nana — the woman who made lots of cookies and cakes and pies, who always served “goldenrod eggs” on Christmas morning, and who made sure everyone had a gift under her tree. She served as an influence to those three generations, as well as to the many teenagers she supervised in church youth musical groups.
Mother wasn’t a writer, but she was a storyteller. She always had a funny anecdote to tell when we talked on the phone (which was almost every day). She didn’t mind embellishing a little to make the story even funnier — and she never cared when the joke was on herself. I credit her with so much of my own lifelong desire to be a writer.
I’ll spend this Mother’s Day with my mother-in-law, who we are still fortunate to have in our lives, and two of my three children (I’ll definitely be talking to the other that day– and I know she would love to be here if she could). It will be a happy day with family, and a happy day of memories, since my mom would be the last to want anyone to be sad when we think of her. In my heart, I’ll always celebrate that special day with my mother.
Gina Wilkins 