Mother's Day 2011

Today is Mother's Day.  

Another Mother's Day 

spent without my mom. 

This makes 5 of them. 

I took flowers to her grave, 

SHE

remembered only 

by me.

Grandma got flowers too.  I even laid a couple of stems in between Mom and Grandma, for Auntie Rita.

I know just how hard that year of "firsts" has been for my cousins, 

my heart breaks for them.

My friend Margaret, 

that misses her Mama so terribly too, 

my heart breaks.

My friend Kathy

a "first" 

for her too.

So I took her Mom flowers today as well.

I have a little story to tell.

We have a long time friend living with us, these being his final days.

Tom and I were on our way to City of Hope for a procedure last Wednesday. I think he was apprehensive, he was feeling nauseous on the drive up. I thought I would try to distract him by telling him about a what happened on my way to pick up his prescription the previous day. 

I was sitting at the corner signal waiting for the left arrow to turn green. As I was waiting I watched a lady get off of the bus. She turned and started walking away. Suddenly I saw her stop in her tracks, quickly look in her bag, turn and start yelling at the bus to stop. She even went so far as to try to get the bus drivers attention by pounding her hand on the side of the bus. She. was. panicked. The bus continued on it's way without stopping. She turned and started running towards the market. She was about my age. As I watched this all I kept saying to myself  is oh no...oh no. Clearly she was worried about what she left on the bus. My light changed and I went to the nearest turn lane to try to catch her. Success! I pulled up to her in the parking lot and explained that I had seen what happened and how the bus didn't stop for her. I asked her if I could drive her to catch the bus to get her left behind belongings. She didn't even skip a beat as she climbed into the car. I drove past the bus and we waited at the next stop so she could get back on for  her bag. We caught that bus about 6 stops down the road, past her stop. 

She was very thankful for the ride to the bus. I told her I would take her back to her bus stop, or I could just drive her closer to her home.We exchanged names and Jodie thanked me. She said "I'm happy to see there are still good people in this world". She also told me she shouldn't have been running. She had recently broken her shoulder....running!

 I dropped Jodie off at the market and went on my way. I had a prescription to pick up!

 I find it so heart warming to be able to recognize when a fellow human being is in need, and by simply taking a small detour to help, how good you can feel. 

When I finished telling Tom this story we were almost at his Dr's appointment. I had distracted him by telling the story. He patted my shoulder and said "You can't save the world, but...you are just like your mom, you are going to try". 

So, on this Mother's Day, I am going to take that as a compliment. I will also hope that my children will learn by what they have seen THEIR mom do....

and that one day, 

when they are missing me, 

someone will tell them.....

you are JUST like your mom!