So, it is Mother's Day weekend and I thought it would be appropriate to talk about my Mom (novel concept, I know). I have to say that I am probably closest to my Mom out of my two parents. I don't really know why that is exactly. I think we are both the more emotional ones of the family and so we sort of end up chatting about a lot of things. It has become fairly common place on the weekend for me to make my tea and my Mom cook up something as I sit in the kitchen. We just sort of chat about whatever is happening or what is planned for the day. We also tend to be the troublemakers of the family, usually my Mom egging me on to do something. We also both have a tendency when worried to laugh, which rarely helps a situation. I think it is a lot of these little things that have made us close.
Honestly, a lot of the reason for my world view is probably because of her. The amount of curiosity she has about the world always surprises me. She is constantly reading and researching about whatever catches her interest. Most of the time this means that she has read some article that I then will be sent because it was mildly interesting for her but I generally don't have that same interest, but we move. It is just the excitement that she has when interacting with a maps or an article that is just so wonderful. She hasn't lost her wonder for the world around her which a lot of people have. Since she can still see the magic in the world magic does happen. I don't mean like opportunities or whatever but legit magic. Let me give you one of my favourite examples.
There are many cases of my Mom walking in the door only for it to immediately start raining afterwards (usually on my Dad's head who is also walking home), or barely catching the bus (one time it even stopped for her as it was going by), or many smaller occasions but this is a truly stunning happenstance. My Mom used to work at a government building downtown who shared a parking lot with a cathedral. Another trend with my Mom is her penchant to lose ear rings, which occurred on this day. My Mom only found out she lost the ear ring when she got home thus it could have fallen off anywhere along her travel home (which involved a bus ride and the subsequent 5 minute walk home). It was pretty much expected to have been lost. This, however, is not the case. Later that week, my Mom is walking beside this cathedral and she spots something hanging on one of the windows of the church. That thing would just so happen to be my Mom's ear ring. So, one needs to consider the steps that are needed to happen for this to take place. Someone would need to find the ear ring, decide to hang it in the window, it needed to stay in the window without being blown off or taken by someone else, and then my mom would then need to notice the fairly average sized ear ring in a window when she had no reason to look there. To make all of that even better was my Mom's explanation of this was like it was a daily occurrence. She simply went "Oh", picked it up, shrugged at the strangeness and went along with her day.
There is another story that comes to mind, this one less magical, about how my Mom's love for her children can manifest as a willingness to fight anything that would go against them. Anytime there was a teacher or a coach that was going to give us grief she would always ask "can I take them?" to which we would have to tell her that she probably could but shouldn't. To put this into perspective she is not a big woman, in fact she is slightly on the short side, but she is willing to get in anyone's face at the drop of the hat for her children. Finally getting to the story I alluded to, There was this one time when I was still playing hockey that we weren't notified about the placement games that were going on. So, it turns out that these games were going on at the same time that my sister was going in for figure skating on the other rink at the same rec center. My Mom ended up at the arena and figured out what was going on. Now, she is not one to let one of her kids get screwed out of something that they were pretty good at (I don't want to toot my own horn but I was pretty good). She managed to find the heads of the league out in lobby, drinking coffee and talking shop, and she absolutely tore them a new one. She knew who they were too since I had been playing in that league and my dad had to interact with them through being the manager for my team and also because of the hockey tournament he ran. So, we were then notified about the dates of the other placement games. Upon writing this I am reminded that at a pick up game of hockey the head of the league's son called me a fatass on the ice so I turned around and dropped the gloves (he didn't because he knew...HE KNEW!). Turns out the apple doesn't fall far from the tree when it comes to unintended interaction with authority figures. It is just amazing to think of this short woman making 5 grown men cower due to her fury over her son being skipped for a non-competitive sports team.
As much as my Mom would be willing to go toe to toe with a grizzly bear for me she is not always a tough as nails warrior. This story is about the other side of the coin and her worry about her kids. So, When I was in elementary school I broke my foot jumping off of a playground structure and also didn't really notice and so walked around for all of recess on it. By the time I got inside my foot felt off and, wouldn't ya know it, there was a decent sized lump on the side of my foot. This lump then grew as I waited for my Dad to pick me up and during the drive to the hospital. By the time my Mom came to the hospital waiting room this lump was about the size of a golf ball, probably a bit bigger. This had the unfortunate effect of making my Mom go white as a sheet and need to take a seat beside me. Thus you had me, generally nonchalant about the whole thing eating a crispy crunch bar, and my Mom, on the verge of fainting.
I am not twisted enough to laugh at my Mom for nearly fainting. It was rather the interaction between my parents while my Mom was in this state that was the funny part of the story. My Dad was filling out the paper work and realized my Mom had gotten a new cellphone, thus he did not know the number to add to the contact list. My Dad need to ask my barely coherent Mom for the new number to which she was able to summon up enough mental strength to utter simply "4...". My dad then explained that phone numbers in our area start with 6. This prompted my Mom to then in the exact same tone utter a "6...". I love my Mom to death but this is the exact reason why for anything medical I have gone to my Dad. I know that all of that was the panic at seeing me hurt, even though I was only in minor discomfort, and looking back on it now it truly was a show of love.
All of these stories are kind of just my way of trying to get across the person I spend every day chatting with. It is just amazing to be around someone who honestly looks at the world and wishes the best for it. The way that she is someone that makes me laugh on the daily and can turn the simplest things into chaotic events is something I would not want to live without. Just the simplest things, like how she gets more excited about people's birthday than the person actually having the birthday, is just great to be around.
She is always there to remind me that love can come easily if you let it but also to not be a push over. That being down to earth doesn't mean you can't have an imagination. That you should trust your instincts and listen to the people whose instincts you trust.
Basically, I love you Mom.