This is the first Mother’s Day I’ve been without my mom who passed away last October.

Mom was an amazing, strong woman who impacted more people than she ever knew. She told me shortly before her passing that she always wanted to be a mom but that she had never really wanted to be a wife. The happiest time of her life, she said, was when I moved home with Brandon and Geoff when they were small, Becky was still living at home and Jonny came back, too. It was a FULL house but she loved it.

While I was staying with her, she received a letter from a girl who worked at the sweets shop in Forks, WA that had apparently attached herself to Mom as a mother figure she didn’t feel she had in her life. She said, “I would look at your bald head and want to wrap you up and take you home with me to be my mom and start all over again.”

Mom was always collecting “kids”. She worked as a waitress at the Magic Pan while I was in high school. All the kids that worked there loved her. I swear my boyfriends always liked her better than they liked me. My girl friends thought she was so cool.

Brandon and Geoff couldn’t have had a better grandma. She loved them so much and was such an integral part of their early years. She watched them for me while I worked, took them to Sesame Street Live and the circus, etc., took them to doctor’s appointments. She was totally there for them. Going through her things I found a notebook. It contained every email I had sent about the boys or they had sent to her, printed out. Looking through it made me cry to again understand the complete love she had for my boys.

Over the years, Mom’s relationship with David grew and changed. It was contentious at times but towards the end, more and more I would hear her say, “You mean I agree with David?”. I know that she was a better mom to David than his own mother has been.

Mom was always trying to find herself but, you know, she was there all along. An amazing mom, an amazing mother in law and an amazing grandma.

Mom, I miss you. Happy Mother’s Day.

Love, Lauri

It’s currently Sunday, May 9th – Mother’s Day – 9:30 a.m. in Fiji. 🙂