Mom

As I was growing up my mom would tell me stories about when she was young. From the way she would tell these stories I always got the picture that she was a shy, homely sort of creature that lived life hidden under her bedcovers reading her books by flashlight. The only pictures I ever saw of her were two that were displayed at Grandma's house. One of her as a 5 or 6 year old with braids and another of her after she gave birth to my older brother Clayton. So I had little to go on. I had never seen pictures of my father in his younger years either until my parents sent me the above picture of them on their wedding day. Well, I'm not attracted to women but I know a gorgeous lady when I see one. Now I can understand the story of Tom Dryg, the local Latin Lover, wooing Claudia McClain over the post office counter so many years ago. My mother and I have had some precious moments together. Well, not really precious, but memorable, and funny, and disturbing, and downright hilarious. I laugh a lot at her and she laughs a lot at herself. So really, when we're together, someone is always laughing. I'll invite you over when she's in town and we'll all laugh together. How about it?

She visited me last year around this time. We went to Kapadokya. We had some fun times. I'm so glad she came because I really needed her around and so did my kids. Badly. My mom is very giving and will give her kids anything they want or need whether or not they deserve it or not. So in exchange for me laughing at her constantly, she saves me from emotional breakdowns and makes life fun when she's around. Does that sound like a fair deal?

My mother used to be a member of the Sierra Club in the San Francisco Bay Area. She would don her hiking boots and go swimming in mountain lakes with a bunch of hippis. Now she still enjoys a good workout, but only if it's fun!

My mom loves to strike a pose, I mean, she loves kids. Especially fat babies that like to snuggle. She tells the best stories, which I never knew until she came and spent time with me in Turkey. From the look in her eyes in the above picture you can tell my mother likes to worry. I don't think I inherited that from her. In fact when I hit her age I think I just might outworry her, to my husbands dismay:(

I just love the fact that my mom doesn't mind getting a little wind in her hair. She'll get her hands dirty. She'll get wet. When we were kids she would spend a lot of time outside in her yard gardening which much of the time meant using the garden hose. We would be bathing in old "galvanized tubs" as she would call them. She would water down our sandbox, cat poop and all, so we could build more effectively. Speaking of cats, we always had so many. And they had the cutest names. Wuggie Norple, Prickly Paw, Chubbins, Kip the Mighty Hunter, Smudge, Graybie, Mamma Shaw, and the list goes on and on. Of course I didn't think the names were cute when I was a teenager. I thought they were "Sooooo lame!"

So my mom loves to garden. When we visited this cemetery in Konya we noticed that a lot of tombs are just a coffin sized planter box. "When I die, Christine, I want to have this kind of tomb, OK?" I'm not sure how I'll manage that one but if that's what you want Mom, you can have it. You'll have to tell me what kind of flowers you want in it.

Hopefully death is a long way off. I know you have high blood pressure and high cholesterol, bad knees, and perhaps a wide array of ailments I don't know about. I know you don't let that get you down. Keep on livin' life to the fullest Mom! Eat whatever Dad puts in front of you.

"It's breakfast time! How about baklava?"