Random
thoughts about my mom:
My mom loved crossword puzzles and the color
red. She was a "night owl", and we'd often have a midnight snack
together. I have countless memories of laying at the foot of her bed having late night chats about anything and everything. If she could have lived anywhere, she'd have chosen Hawaii- she visited there many times throughout her life. I
loved her with my entire heart. She loved to crochet, and always had a
stash of baby blankets on hand. She used to call me "Sarah-Sarah". Although she never got a driver's license, she
learned to drive a standard transmission in Fenway during rush hour. She sang soprano in her church choir. When I found out she had cancer, I
told her I couldn't live without her. Bobby pins and craft glue make
me think of her. She was the second youngest of ten children, and she
had nine of her own. Our birthdays are three days apart, and I'm still learning how to celebrate mine without her. She loved to
read. She didn't like to cook, but she could make a great shepherd's
pie. My friends still compliment her tuna salad. She was afraid of
heights. She and my sister Faith collected pocket change from the year
1969 (my birth year) and would tape the coins to little hand written
notes to me. I have a pile of them! Sometimes I feel like I knew
everything and nothing about her. If reincarnation exists, she said she
doesn't want to come back. She loved mystery novels and canned
asparagus. Her favorite perfumes were l'air du temp and Giorgio. Her
middle name was incorrectly recorded on her birth certificate as her
first name; I knew her as Dorothy, but her family and my father called
her Muriel. When I was young, one of our favorite restaurants to
frequent was "The Magic Pan"; they had the best garlic bread! She
opened a passbook savings account and saved to buy me my first car: A
1977 Chevy Camaro. As I was getting ready for her wake, a gust of wind
from a slightly opened window dislodged a bookmark from a pile of papers
and blew it to my feet. I stooped down to pick it up, and saw it had
the drawing of an angel on one side and her name on the other. She
liked to fold paper napkins into shapes. I still have the last one she
made for me, probably for my birthday in 2008. She was funny, stubborn,
gentle, determined, simple, complicated, intelligent, willful,
trustworthy, opinionated, dependable, and so much more.
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