Honor, the mother

As usual I focus on mothers and daughters in the month of Mother’s Day.

This week several authors will be sharing memories of their mothers. And in the upcoming weeks of May I will ask authors and you readers to share little tidbits about your moms. Hope this makes you remember and hope you enjoy hearing other’s memories.

Here’s my take on I REMEMBER MAMA.

Do you recognize the title of this blog post?

If you do, you’re over 30 or an old movie or early TV buff. I Remember Mama was a book first, then a movie, then a charming TV series.

It was the story of a Swedish family that immigrated to San Francisco early in the 20th century. If you haven’t seen this move, rent it. It is all about how Mama–kind, good and wise–keeps her family together and loved.

I lost my mother a few years ago. Unfortunately the end of her life was nothing like the days I most treasure, the days when she was a young and loving mother. Dementia and its unpleasant side effects separated us at the end.

But today I want to remember Mama, the way I loved her.

My mother loved animals. We owned turtles, ducks, fish, cats, dogs, a baby robin. (The robin’s another story for another day.) Our house was always filled with animals–some ours; some of the neighbors. It wasn’t unusual to come home from school and find the house filled with all the pets on the block. (This was before leash-laws.)

One special memory is the cat from down the street who obviously didn’t trust her kittens with her owner. She birthed her kittens in her own home. But a few hours after delivery, she carried each kitten one by one up the hill to our house. My mother “got” what the mama-cat wanted and set up a box with an old blanket in it. The cat nestled all three of her mewing kittens to that box and moved in. Once or twice a day, she would go down to her house and visit her owners but then she would come back to our house.

Our neighbor downhill was not amused. But what could she do? When the kittens were old enough to give away, my mom found homes for them. And the mama-cat moved back to her owners.

One Christmas memory I have is of my first cat, a very large, a very loving tom who thought that we had put up the Christmas tree  just for him. He climbed it every night!

And this was in the days of glass ornaments. Every night for three nights we woke up to CRASH!!!! We had to pick up the tree, sweep up the shattered glass ornaments and redecorate.

Now most moms would have banished the cat until the tree came down New Year’s Eve.

Not my mom.

She put a cup hook in the wall and tied a narrow rope to the tree. Then the cat could climb the tree and not knock it over. Now most moms would not have wanted a cup hook in her living room wall. But to my mom, the cat was more important than the wall.

This is how I REMEMBER MAMA. QUESTION: What do you most remember about your mother?

I will be giving away an advanced reading copy of my book HONOR and my book BLESSING which comes out July 1st both to one reader who leaves a comment. Hope you’ll share!–Lyn

Blessing, her daughter