In the past, Mother's Day was always one of those days which turned out to be more of an inconvenience than a day to look forward to. As a child, I was oblivious to it. As an adult, I always seemed to have better things to do and would only get round to preparing for Mother's Day at the very last moment. Don't get me wrong, I love my Mum and have always thought the world of her. It was more the "Hallmark Holiday" tag that Mother's Day has which rubbed me up the wrong way.
This year, it is different.
My Mum 's health has declined rapidly over the last 9 months. In that time she has fallen and broken her leg badly, but has had to live with it being broken as an operation to fix it would likely kill her due to a very weak heart. As a result, she's been forced to move out of her home and enter a Care Home. All of this is in addition to the deteriorating state of her mind due to Alzheimer's disease. All in all, a very stressful time tinged with more than a hint of sadness.
Like I said, this year is different.
As the old saying goes....you never know how much you miss someone until they're gone. Well my Mum hasn't gone yet and I, for one, am determined to enjoy more time with her whilst she is still here so I do not regret later that I didn't do as much as possible to make this time in her life as happy as possible. With that in mind, for this Mother's Day I have put aside any issues I may have with the day itself and transformed Mother's Day into Mother's Weekend!
The weekend will be full of family visits, an outing for lunch on the Sunday itself, a visit to the beauty salon on the Saturday to get pampered and preened and a wheel around the shops for some retail therapy tomorrow (Friday). All transportation is going to be via the best limousine service I can find (as well as the prestige, limos are wheelchair friendly!). For someone who's almost 89 and in failing health, its a mammoth weekend!
Mother's Day may be a fabricated holiday designed to make you spend money, but the idea of honouring the woman who brought you into this world and, as likely as not, brought you up for more years than you can remember, is something not just to grudgingly acknowledge but something to take hold of and celebrate.
Your Mum will not be around forever - a hard fact which crashed into my consciousness this past year. Don't miss the opportunity to say Thank you Mum. I love you.
1 comment:
I am not the teary kind but your post did make me well up a bit. It is a very sweet post. Hope it all goes to plan and am sure Mama ThoughtsonOman will have a lovely day. I miss my mum the most on Mother's Day because she lives in my home country while I am here. I miss spoiling her, but do my best to treat her when I go back for visits.
OB
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