Today I am giving thanks for my mom. She and I have been through a bit of shit and we had some rocky years, but now that I’m older and a lot less wiser than I ever thought I was, Ma and I get along great.
She was there for me when Freddie’s family was acting shitty to me, even before I was awful about them in print. She was there when my wedding almost didn’t happen, and when we decided to have a 2nd reception in Ohio and the venue cancelled on us, she went to our second-choice venue in her jammies and wrote out a damn check so we could have a party. She also suggested that we end it at 10 instead of 11 so we could all go to the bar, which we did. Going to the bar in my giant wedding dress is one of my favorite memories of all time.
She was there when things in my marriage got a little crazy. She listened and sympathized and sat there saying “yeah, that’s right!” while I ranted. She never tried to fix it all, but she listened and let me rant until I ran out of steam and figured out the solutions on my own.
Ma has really blossomed as a grandmother. She and The Jillian are two peas in a pod and they have a pretty special bond that gives everyone involved a lot of joy. I have been lucky enough to be fairly close to both of my grandmothers, but I never had the kind of relationship with either of them that my mom and Jillian have with each other. That’s probably a numbers game, though.
I wish Ma lived closer to us, though. It’s only 400 miles or so but as she gets older it will be tougher for her to make that drive as often as we would all like. The offer is open for her to come live with us when the time comes (yeah, that’s “when” not “if” and I’d be well pleased if it were sooner rather than later), but she’s a stubborn sort of person and will probably have to be forcibly removed from her crumbling Castle Boring.
Still, it’s nice to have a Nana who is unencumbered enough that she can fly around the country with us. How else would we have been able to see Phish’s Miami NYE run in 2009, or get through an Ironman in Idaho, or best yet – without Nana, we wouldn’t have been able to hang out in a freaking CASTLE in freaking SCOTLAND. We owe Nana quite a debt for that alone.
I hear other women complain about their mothers and I am so very thankful that mine is so awesome.