First you need to know, my mom had 6 kids – well 7 if you count the one she had as a teenager – 5 boys and 2 girls.  The girls always had to be assertive to get attention, cause mom idolized her boys.  Over the years, we all watched her.. she always made sure we were well cared for, ate good food and kept a clean house.  Breakfast was always early, but dinner… she made sure it was always at six o’clock no matter where any of us were that day.  She was a good cook and often she would experiment with delectable dishes.  We never stuck our noses up at those dishes cause we knew, “eat what’s on your plate or you don’t eat at all.”  Sometimes my brothers would grab what was on my plate and mom would interject with a “HEY!” and then the look… oh her look.  If you weren’t careful, her look would haunt you in the middle of the night.

We were a messy lot as we grew, but mom always happily cleaned up our messes.  Even when we were sick, she would sit by us comforting us even though we often didn’t want the attention – especially after recovering from dental surgery or vomiting in the middle of the night.  She truly cared for our well being and she loved us probably way more than we loved her.

She always fussed over Christmas.  Decorating the house with lights, trees and pretty wrapped gifts.  We made sure we each bought her a little something so she would know how much we loved her even if we didn’t show it any other time. She would wrap our gifts and marvel as we tore open the wrappings.  And we made sure the ribbons were strewn about the house making more work for her.  We secretly laughed about the mess we always made as we watched her clean it up.

Often, we would go tearing through the house knocking things over and fighting with our brothers.  Mom would get between us and yell, “just stop it!  Can’t you learn to love each other?”

As we grew, Mom was a lot of fun… like the times she would play ball with us, letting us catch the ball cause she would miss on purpose.

Like the time she wore a crazy hat and wanted all of us included in her selfie…

Or like the time she just started laughing for no reason at all… we were ready to call the ambulance and have her hauled away.

And to this day she still talks about her cross-country trip with her oldest boy – it was such a crazy trip she wrote a book about it.

A few times mom was pretty sick, and we wondered if she was going to die.  My brothers and I would hover over her wondering, wondering what would we do if she died.  We silently cried when this would happen. One time my brother shook me and said, “let’s just be with her now, comfort her, hold her hand, let her know that although there are times we are a handful, we love her, we need her… let’s just be with her now.”   And so, we did, and what seemed like only a few days she was back to herself, chasing us, feeding us, and giving us that haunting look.

Mom, we all want you to know how much we love you.  Life wouldn’t be the same without you. You are our Rock! And we are so glad to call you Mom.  The day you came into our life, WE did the right thing when WE picked You.

Happy Mother’s Day

Love – your feline companions over the last 35 years,

Byron, Maxx, Zack, Ziggy, Oscar, ButterCup and Snowball

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