Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy Birthday, Mom – 97 years old today in heaven, ageless and eternal in our memories and our hearts.  I searched for just the right photograph to post for her today and quickly realized it would be impossible to find one single memory that captures Mom – she’s entwined into so many of our memories, so many of our moments, past, present and even future, that to find just one is like trying to explain someone based on a single day, a single snap of the camera, a single moment in time. 
 
So, I found a few snaps, a handful of many, many waiting in the dusty old boxes and books to be brought back to light, moments when Mom looks purely, simply happy – they are really how I remember her now. There are a lot of similar photos to these taken through the years, mostly times spent with family when she seemed to be at her happiest, her brightest, her most relaxed and confident.

There are a million ways I remember Mom, but looking at these photos today the word that jumps so clearly to mind is that Mom was fun.  She loved to laugh, it was an infectious laugh; she was always so fast with a joke, even to the very end; she always found a reason to celebrate and make a big fuss over even the smallest occasion; she often poked fun at herself, which I now know spoke volumes about her confidence; and somehow she always found a reason to be happy, even in the most daunting of circumstances.  Mostly, she was generous and loved to share her fun with all of us. 
 
My cousin describes Mom as “the special one,” the youngest of ten who lost her mother at childbirth, was raised by her older siblings and a distant cousin who quickly took the role of her mother and for whom I’m named.  I’m sure I never fully comprehended what all of that meant, but now, as age and hindsight lend me some wisdom, the more I understand my cousin’s description of her.  She was so very special, in so many, many ways to so many, and through her life she touched people’s lives in the very simplest, most basic and most important of ways.
 
And she was always so much fun.
 
Happy Birthday, Mom – we love you to the moon and back and will forever be your chickens.  <3