Happy Birthday to Mother

People always think it's funny that I call my mother Mother. It sounds overly formal to them - but it sounds loving to me. They are always Mother and Daddy because that's what my mother called her parents. Today is my mother's 70th birthday. Wow. It's hard to believe.

My mother has always done things the way they were supposed to be done. She followed protocol and stayed within the rules. And as much as that annoyed me as a teenager and even a 20-something person, today I find great comfort in that. Isn't life funny?

My mother always wore the right things, was svelte and petite, always had her hair coiffed, always RSVP'd, never arrived late, always looked effortlessly pretty, never missed her hair appointment, had her clothes made by a seamstress in Ft. Worth during her youth, always worked, was never lazy, wouldn't have us running around town looking like Ragamuffins, always went to church on Sunday, had a bag and shoes that matched - and a sensible bag, had fabulous costume jewelry during my youth, loved to travel, loved her family.

My mother taught school for 38 years, thus when we were growing up, she was off when we were off from school. Every summer she planned all these cultural excursions, a small sampling of them: going to the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, The McNay Art Museum in SA, Visiting various courthouses, the Hertzberg Circus Collection, Hemisphere Plaza (and eating at the restaurant at the top where my brother asked, "What are creeps?" when he saw Crepes on the menu), eating a very fancy lunch at La Louisiane - a fabulous and very expensive french restaurant in San Antonio, and many more.

My mother often says that she isn't sure where I got my passion for voluntarism, but that's silly, I got it from her. It comes from all her teaching about citizenship and her expectation that we would participate in our community as good citizens, however we expressed that. My mother showed us, summer after summer, that we were to go to these public places and we were to be cognizant of what went on in them - courthouse or museum - we were part of the community and we should be engaged and informed. She didn't say that in words, but she did it, by hauling us all over creation when we could have easily gone the country club and sat by the pool.

Being a mother myself now, I understand the passion she had for teaching us because working up that kind of gumption and energy to instruct us after getting a break from teaching and working herself was a feat. I didn't really understand that until I had children of my own and the desire to do nothing - to send them out into the backyard or let them watch a program - is pretty overwhelming. No, my mother was bound and determined to mold us and bring us up as Citizens and I am so grateful to her.

Today is Mother's 70th birthday, as I wrote. And I put together a book of old pictures and memories from her life... Pictures of the house where she grew up and the house in San Antonio where I grew up that I was able to pull of google earth. Technology is cool. I hope she loves it and I want her to know what a rich and fabulous life she made for us and what a great mother she is.

So, a very happy birthday to the woman who is the mother I'd like to be.

xoxo

This is Granny and Poppa, they look so smart, as my grandmother would say.