It’s Mom’s Birthday! Happy Birthday, Mom!
Mom used to joke that she was like Jack Benny, forever 39. As my cousins got older, she’d tease them "You’re catching up to me!" Since she crossed over in 1990, Mom is now ageless, forever still beautiful and laughing, forever loving and caring.
If she still had a physical self here, I’d bake her a cake. What kind would she like? Probably devil’s food with chocolate icing. Mom used to bake great cakes with her own homemade icing that we kids all loved. If there was extra icing left over (and somehow there usually was), she’d let us spread it on a slice of bread – yum! I liked that better than the cake itself.
What kind of present would I get for her? Maybe we’d go shopping together and I’d let her pick something out. We used to shop together a lot when I was in jr. high and high school, taking off to the mall after dinner to browse. Maybe she’d pick out a new top for herself or maybe some perfume or jewelry. Mom loved earrings! For her birthday, I’d play piano for her because I know it always made her happy to listen to me play.
My dear brothers and Dad woud be there to celebrate her birthday, all of us teasing one another the way our family always does, with much love and caring affection. She’d get calls and cards from her brothers and her sister, funny cards usually. She’d also get cards from her nieces and nephews – several of them her godchildren – who she loved so very dearly.
I’ll be heading over to the cemetery now to take flowers to her grave, to polish her headstone, to sit and pray. Her spirit is in the air and in our hearts, filling us with her love and with her joy still. I like for others to see that her headstone is cared for, that this is a person who is loved and who receives flowers on her birthday. I can’t bake her a cake today, but I can make sure her headstone gleams and that a bright, happy bouquet gives others a glimpse of the joy Mom gives us.
For more memories of Mom, see: http://thecenterofmyself.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!D1DB82ECCAB17BFE!160.entry
Happy Birthday, Mom!
The Center of My Self 
What a heart-warming message, Rose. Your love for your mother is a beautiful thing. It\’s a reminder for those of us who still have our mothers with us, to remember they won\’t always be here and to be thoughtful at all times. My mother made me some rhubarb sauce today. I gave her the rhubarb, which was given to me at glensheen on Saturday. So she made me a big batch of sauce and brought it up for me today. It\’s yummmy!
Ceci
HUGS Rose! My daughter and I made a chocolate fudge cake with chocolate frosting, perhaps the cycle goes on and on…perhaps through others…who knows?
warm thoughts for you,
Mercy
What a wonderful daughter you are, Rose. I\’m sure your mom would be very proud. Much love and best wishes from Alabama. Mitch
What beautiful memories and thoughts of your Mom, Rose. It\’s so inspiring and awe-some in the truest sense of the word to be reminded of what a special and important thing the Mother/Daughter bond is, and how adult children should work to keep that relationship fluid and loving. I hope I\’ve brought my girls up with enough love and widsom to feel about me the way you always have for your Mom.
Working to get better….thinking of you often as I rest by the Stream.