Happy Mother’s Day! I hope that everyone is celebrating their mothers, grandmothers, stepmothers, and all the women who have influenced your lives.
This Mother’s Day is especially poignant to me because my mom passed away in February, so this is the first year I am unable to call her or send a card. Losing a parent is never easy, but losing my mom has really hit me to the core. I am the youngest (and a surprise, by the way), and I feel that by the time I arrived, my parents were older and perhaps more patient with me than with my siblings. In addition to being a wonderful mother, my mom and I were great friends. I tried never to take that for granted because I know being good friends is not necessarily a given in a mother and daughter relationship. I was very lucky that way.
For this column, I want to honor the spirit of my mom by recommending titles that represent her joys, hobbies and interests. She was the one who took me to the library on a regular basis and encouraged a love of reading and writing. Before she married my dad, she took a few journalism classes, and while she never had the chance to pursue a writing career, she was my biggest cheerleader when I developed a love for words and language.
This week’s reading list is dedicated to my mom and her varied interests in life. When I think of her now, I remember her great love for reading, sewing and quilting; as a friend to and caretaker of many a furry and feathered creature; and her curiosity about the world especially women’s history and weather. And camels — a specific family thing that makes me smile every time I see one. I hope that one or more of these titles will speak to you — and maybe your mother, too.
