Mother’s day was invented
by Anna Jarvis in 1908. As the years
passed and she saw how commercial the holiday became, she tried to get it rescinded. The day is still with us and still an
intregal part of American family life.
Not mine. My mother, tho she looks kind, wasn’t a nice
lady at all. She was a woman
architectural engineer in the 1930s at a time when they weren’t openly
accepted. Her second husband was an
alcoholic as was her third. Her only
child, me, was an alcoholic and addict with severe learning disabilities. She used a bread-board as discipline. This wasn’t a “Leave it to Beaver” situation.
She fought colon cancer,
breast cancer, thyroid cancer, a difficult daughter, and a drunk husband by
inventing a printing business in her basement.
She became an alcoholic herself, and ate herself into roundness. Her father bought a big house on five acres
probably just to give her a home during these difficult years. Once her husband, father, and mother in law
died, she went on a diet, got a new wardrobe, and sold the house. She moved to an apartment on Shelter Island
her in San Diego and began to cruise the world.
She met her third husband
at a bar on the island, and they began cruising the west coast in his yacht until
she grew too old and fragile to be battered by the storms. When she died, he kept her boxed, cremated
remains on her chair for a year or so.
One day the box vanished.
Life is so complicated and not at all like Mother's Day.
ReplyDeleteBut it's life.
ReplyDeleteMy Mom is buried in NC and I know exactly where because my brother and I made all the arrangements. My Dad was out of it and broke, so I had to chip in as did Mike. After she died the family fell apart.
ReplyDeletei got a sweet card from my sister for Mom's Day. I was an older sister, and although I think I was bossy (controlling bitch), she thinks of me as Mom. How dysfunctional we all are. Good to let the past go I think.
We all have our stories. Bless you for coming out a winner.
ReplyDeletePretty tough bunch you were and are!
ReplyDeleteNot the usual memory, but a truthful one.
ReplyDeleteGreat story. Great for Mother's Day. Not my favorite holiday and one I try to avoid. Sort of like my birthday.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised that Canada celebrates Mother's Day at the same time.
ReplyDeleteWow! What an incredible life your mom had. A bread board??? Yikes! It sounds like a book.