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My mother and I share the same birthday, but only one of us is here celebrating it, just as has been the case for 39 years. I lost my mother to lung cancer way too soon and it’s made my birthday bittersweet over the years. Friends who knew her remember her sense of humor and creativity. I remember her patience raising four kids and her resilience upon losing a fifth to SIDS at only 6 weeks old. She loved animals, particularly her dog Iodine. We thought that was such a cool name, that my brother says he’s going to name his next dog that. She went to college to become a microbiologist. Not long ago I came across my 8th grade yearbook and under my photo it said my ambition was to become a microbiologist! Well, that didn’t happen, but I am in a scientific field and I got some of her other traits. I suppose if she had been a gladiator or statistician, that would have been my ambition at age 12; I worshipped her.
Family was real important to my mother and sadly, she lost two brothers at a young age prior to her own illness. All three siblings had rare cancers, so we thought there might be a cancer gene in the family. But as I eventually went off to school for Industrial Hygiene and learned about work-related illnesses, I think maybe they had massive exposures to chemicals at work. Of course, they all three smoked too and that’s a double-whammy. The fourth sibling, an aunt, smoked like a chimney and abused valium till the ripe old age of 80, dying ironically – on my birthday. But she never worked. The best conclusion that can be made from that story is people who work die young!
But this is one of my favorite Mom-stories: We were “good Catholics” – Mom converted from Episcopalian to marry Dad. We did catechism, confession, church every Sunday, etc… Well, one Sunday we were rushing out of the house, throwing on coats, trying to get all the kids moving. We’re in church, sitting near the rear…my brothers and I are all bored and fidgeting as much as we could get away with. And my Mom starts laughing. She notices that in her haste to get out the door, she threw her coat on right over her apron! And rather than just smile and keep it to herself, she points it out to the four of us. Now you know that four bored kids in church need less excuse than that to start giggling! I loved that she could be silly in church. She had many aprons, and I have a number of them, saved for a quilt one of these days.
Happy birthday Mom! Thanks for continuing to make me laugh. And I will always be your best birthday present ever.
Family was real important to my mother and sadly, she lost two brothers at a young age prior to her own illness. All three siblings had rare cancers, so we thought there might be a cancer gene in the family. But as I eventually went off to school for Industrial Hygiene and learned about work-related illnesses, I think maybe they had massive exposures to chemicals at work. Of course, they all three smoked too and that’s a double-whammy. The fourth sibling, an aunt, smoked like a chimney and abused valium till the ripe old age of 80, dying ironically – on my birthday. But she never worked. The best conclusion that can be made from that story is people who work die young!
But this is one of my favorite Mom-stories: We were “good Catholics” – Mom converted from Episcopalian to marry Dad. We did catechism, confession, church every Sunday, etc… Well, one Sunday we were rushing out of the house, throwing on coats, trying to get all the kids moving. We’re in church, sitting near the rear…my brothers and I are all bored and fidgeting as much as we could get away with. And my Mom starts laughing. She notices that in her haste to get out the door, she threw her coat on right over her apron! And rather than just smile and keep it to herself, she points it out to the four of us. Now you know that four bored kids in church need less excuse than that to start giggling! I loved that she could be silly in church. She had many aprons, and I have a number of them, saved for a quilt one of these days.
Happy birthday Mom! Thanks for continuing to make me laugh. And I will always be your best birthday present ever.