Head Tale

(Terribly blurry photo but I realise that I don’t take very many photos with just my mom and also that I probably shouldn’t take selfies after drinking mojitos!)

So a few years back, soon after Pace was born, I was thinking a lot about father-son relationships.  Because of that, I decided to post a list of some of the (many) reasons I loved my dad.

I posted that list for my dad’s birthday and meant to post a similar list for my mom as well.  But the idea slipped my mind and I kept forgetting to do it as different opportunities arose – her birthday or other Mother’s Days.

So, better late than never, here is my list of “Some Reasons” for my mom…

• I love my mom because she was a nurse at a time when not many women had professional careers.
• I also love that, in part because my mom had a good paying job, our family enjoyed a very solid middle class lifestyle, moving into a new house in the “suburbs” of town when I was quite young, taking lots of family trips, having enough money to spoil their son and so on.
• I love my mom because of the many advantages I had growing up with a nurse as a mom.  I always joke that “my friends had to go to the doctor every time they had a sniffle but mom never took me to the doctor unless a bone was sticking out of my body!” But that’s almost more truthful than joking! 😉
• I love that my mom was the best cook growing up. (Now it’s a tie between her and Shea of course!) 😉
• Like so many kids growing up in small rural towns in the 1970’s/80’s, I loved so many experiences mom gave me growing up – everything from getting to see how you made bread from scratch to all aspects of growing vegetables in a garden to her letting me even try a puff of her cigarette when I saw somebody do a trick on TV blowing smoke bubbles.  (My smoke bubble didn’t work and that was one of the few puffs of a cigarette I ever had in my life.)
• Speaking of that, I *love* that my mom quit smoking when she did.
• On the other hand, I love that mom enjoys a drink or three on occasion (as I often join her!) 😉
• I love that mom makes homemade wine.
• I don’t exactly love the fact that my mom’s parents decided to move to BC the very year I was born – that makes it sound like I was the worst baby ever!  But I do love the fact that mom’s parents living in BC also gave me all kinds of amazing, unique experiences – annual trips to Kelowna, picking peaches right off the tree G&G had in their backyard, hunting for Ogopogo while swimming in Okanagan Lake and many many more.
• I was pretty young, maybe four or five, when we went to the local IGA for groceries one day but I still remember how she told me I couldn’t have a package of Smarties.  Since they were right there in front of me, I put the package in my pocket and walked out, pretty proud of my ingenuity.  But when I pulled them out in the car, mom walked me back into the store, made me pay for them and more importantly, made me apologize for stealing – an important lesson imprinted at a very young age.
• I often debate where I got my love of books and reading from – dad or mom – but I do know that my mom has been in the past and currently is back serving on the board of the local public library branch I grew up with so that’s definitely one point on her side of the ledger.
• Should I mention that I loved that mom had a big collection of romance novels so I may or may not have read the “naughty” parts for “enlightenment” in the days before the Internet? 🙂

• Speaking of public service, both mom and dad have always been involved in service organizations, local boards/committees and so on.  So that’s a strong example for me. Although I have currently pulled back on almost all volunteer stuff since Sasha was born, I have also been involved in a number of activities over the year – volunteer, political, library-related, etc. over the years.  I probably won the Spirit of Librarianship Award at FIMS in part because I did what my parents showed me to do – jump right in, get involved, start things, try things, etc.
• I love that my mom was active in the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses in a variety of roles over the years and although she was never a huge “rah rah union!” person, her involvement showed me firsthand the importance of unions in protecting the rights of working people among many other insights I gained from her time in the union.
• Mom was able to spend many nights in hotels in Regina, Saskatoon and elsewhere during union meetings/bargaining/etc. so we were often able to join her for a visit and/or a swim and/or a meal.
• I love that mom is so extroverted and whether it was a family reunion, a block party or after-hours at a union meeting, her room or our house would often become the social centre.
• I love how many people still, to this day, randomly tell me how good of a nurse my mom was, how she helped them, how she was compassionate, or even how how she didn’t indulge them or take any shit!
• Part of that comes from the pride I know my mom took in working hard and doing a good job.
• Looking back at that list I made for my dad, I mentioned how he’d play “double or nothing” at cards repeatedly until I won back all the money I lost (or I “won” some sum.)  Mom was always a lot more competitive and less likely to cut me breaks at cards or board games or whatever but I love that she was teaching me some important lessons with that approach too.
• I love that my mom made a profit on the car she bought in the early 1970’s which she sold only a few short years ago!
• I love that Sasha looks so much like my mom and reminds me of her every time I look at Sasha.

Those are just a few random thoughts and memories off the top of my head.

I love you mom – Happy Mother’s Day!