Thursday, February 2, 2012

My mother - NaBloPoMo 1

Having finished the River of Stones Challenge for January, I am undertaking a new one for February.  NaBloPoMo caught my attention today...

Prompt 1:  Tell us about your mother.

My mother is Mary.  She will be 73 this month, she is the mother of three, wife of my dad for the past 51 years, a teacher by trade, and one of the least reactive people I know!  Living with my dad, and the three smart-aleck children she raised, someone had to be the "straight man", right?  But it is nearly impossible to get a rise out of my mother and God knows, I've tried.  She is Swedish and German, she was raised to be very stoic and martyr-ish, and I have never seen her cry.  She loves to read - I find it hysterical that she reads all kinds of Danielle Steele and other romances, but won't read anything like Harry Potter because it is so "made up" as if romance novels aren't just as fantasic! 

My mother had breast cancer when she was 37.  She had a radical mastectomy, weeks of radiation therapy, and months of chemotherapy.  An awful couple years for her, I'm sure, but she lived.  Never had any recurrence or ongoing cancer scares.  I was only in elementary school and I can hardly remember that she was sick.  She tells me now that she would be in bed all day, miserable, but would get up and shower before we got home from school and then try to make it through the evening with us.  In my lists of things I'm grateful for, I can hardly even get through the part where I list how grateful I am to have had my mother for the last 35 years without crying...I can't even imagine what would have happened to our family without her. 

My mother's best friend was always her own mother.  My Grandma Helen died a few years ago, at age 95.  I hope I get a prompt to write about her.  She was awesome.  I am heartsick for my mother to have lost her best friend. 

In all honesty, I don't know how my mother has put up with my dad all these years.  When they were approaching their 50th anniversary, I said (only 75% jokingly) that a person ought to just be able to walk away after 50 years with no strings.  But they are devoted to each other and when I think of what they have lived through in those 50 years, I do admire their perseverance and commitment to each other and to our family. 

I love my mom.

3 comments:

  1. Your mom sounds incredible. To go through her illness when you were young and put on a happy face for the children everyday is so so brave.

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  2. Amazing - no crying. Where does she put her sadness? My mother is also very stoic and martyr-ish . Once upon a time I was more stoic than I am now. For me, I have learned that to laugh and to cry and to yell and dance and all that - that is to live. But maybe our mothers found other ways to live?

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  3. Wow, your Mom is awesome! I can't even imagine the strength she had to get through her illness.

    And I too hope there is a prompt about Grandmothers!

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