Happy birthday, Mom!

My mom, circa 1958

My mother was born 74 years ago today.  She grew up wanting to be a wife and mom, in a world where women learned to cook and take dictation.  She was a secretary until she had her first child, me, at the age of 22.  Her love of reading, a desire to learn French, and fondness for crafts are just a few of her qualities that shaped my life.  She always liked a good story, and I adored listening to the adults talk "grownup stuff" during family gatherings.  Part of the lore of my mom involved the tales she told about the one class she hated.  The idea of girls taking exercise was new to her school.  She and her friends dreaded it.  She had a vast cadre of extraordinary measures she and her similarly minded classmates employed to avoid participating in gym.  Listening to my mom tell me about how she skirted the rules to avoid sweating always made me laugh.  How could she, who always taught me to follow rules, be such a mischief maker?!


As funny as the anti-gym stories were, my mom's dislike of exercise was no joke.  She started smoking when she was 17, to look cool, and as part of a recommendation in a brochure she got at her doctor's office to help control weight.  Sadly, she passed away six years ago, still smoking, which, if it controlled her weight only helped tip the scales higher.  I never saw my mother ride a bike nor run in the 45 years I knew her.  


My mom always wanted the best for her kids, that we would find the happiness she dreamed of having.  She had many talents, and she also had many regrets over the missed opportunities in her own life. I wish she had found a way to be her better self, to leap over her obstacles.  There are so many things I now wish I could share with her, especially as I enter new stages in my own life and gain the wisdom to better understand the passages she traversed in hers.  In many ways, she continues to inspire me.  I thought of her today as I pushed myself to run just a little harder.  Love you, Mom.


Até amanhã... 
8/29/11 - 3.3 miles | 34 mins | 5.7 mph | 349 kcal