Ma mère

I love my mother. I hardly go a day without calling her. I can’t understand how we can be so close, because we are complete opposites. But for some reason, we put our differences aside.

It’s her birthday today. I decided to write about her because she has quite a fascinating history.

My mom was born and raised in the Bronx. She had several siblings, one who left and never came back after she was brutally raped. My mom and her siblings had a rough time growing up. My grandmother was mentally ill. Possibly schizophrenic? She’d leave the kids alone for months at a time. When she’d leave, she’d lock all of the food in her bedroom. My mom’s brother had to go and steal food for them.

I know very little about my grandmother. The only time I ever saw her was at her funeral. Quite … eerie. Supposedly she was very promiscuous, and she would come home dressed in only lingerie. I guess it’s not surprising that my mom ended up in an orphanage.

Later in life, my mom ended up having five kids. One, however, died when she was two years old. She was playing on a fire escape with my two sisters and fell. My mom was in the apartment taking care of my brother, who was near-death. He was born very ill. They didn’t think he would make it either.

After my mom had my four siblings, they continued to live in the Bronx until she decided that it was too dangerous there. My sisters were quite traumatized after the principal was beat to death by a student with a baseball bat. Also, the fact that my sister died didn’t help the situation.

They moved to the sticks. Also known as Bath, PA. My mom met a guy at work and nine months later… ME!!!

Um, at this point my mom had to leave her husband. Needless to say, there were some issues between my dad and her ex-husband and her kids. At age 12, actually, my brother moved to California to get away from my dad who was supposedly quite violent with him. I was too young to notice, so I have no opinion on that. I refuse to believe either side of the story.

That was the worst day ever, by the way. I was three years old. My dad took me to 7-eleven to get a Slurpee. I purposely got pina colada because I knew that was my brother’s favorite flavor and I wanted to be cool like him. I was excited to show it to him when I got home. But when I got home, my mom was on the couch crying. He left. I didn’t see him again for at least 10 years.

I slept with his teddy bear every night. To this day, I keep it next to my bed. He gave it to me a few days before he left.

Anyway, things have definitely settled down over the years. My mom and dad live together. They never got married, but they’re very happy. They’re definitely the best of friends.

A few years ago my mom had a severe head injury and I almost lost her. Her entire face was covered with stitches and she was never the same. She had violent outbursts, she would stare into space for long periods of time, she lost a lot of her memory. It made me realize how much I took her for granted.

I love my mom so much and I will never take her for granted ever again. I’m so glad to have her. I’m so glad that she was okay that day. I don’t know how I would have made it through certain things without her. I'm lucky to have her.

I hope her birthday was perfect today.