Gratitude
Mother’s Day has been bittersweet since my mom’s passing. Growing up, she and I didn’t always get along. I was independent from the time I could dress myself.
Being a child in the 70’s meant that plaid pants & a tie dye body suit was an outfit, at least in my mind. She let me go with it though & throughout my childhood, was there for me and my siblings. Cupcakes in ice cream cones for the school bake sale, funnel cakes in an electric skillet at the school fair, potluck dinners at Camp Osborn Boy Scout camp. Too many activities really to mention but she was always ready to go and be there, even if it was outside her comfort zone.
The only way she enjoyed being outside was at the beach or in their swimming pool. My love of the forest did not come from her. Clark & I knew we were in big trouble a few years back when I crashed my mountain bike & dislocated my shoulder. I waited a few days before calling to tell her, and might have popped a pain pill before I did dial her up. Not much sympathy, more or less a scolding over the phone, “Little girls shouldn’t play in the woods!”.
My dad died a year before she did and this is the picture of her he kept in his wallet for 51 years.
I know they’d approve of Unicoi Preserves, and as she once briskly told Clark, “You’re smart, you’ll figure it out.”
