Happy Mother's Day, Mom

7 of us went to see the new "Star Trek" movie today which was really excellent and much better than I expected, which I found to be sort of a "religious experience" because my family originally bought its first color TV so we could watch Star trek on TV in color because it was one of the best Color shows on TV by then with all the special effects during the mid 1960s.

Anyway, as soon as the movie was over I was hit with a really crazy depression and nothing seemed to bring me out of it except an unexpected call from an old friend for the 1/2 hour that we talked.
But finally, tonight I said to my wife, "What's wrong with me I can't figure out why I'm so depressed. She said, "Honey, It's your first mother's day without your Mom alive."

I just couldn't believe that I didn't even think of that and on top of it, it's a full moon to make matters even worse. But if you can name what it is eating you then somehow you are okay. Before this I just thought I must be losing it until I realized what was really bothering me. My MOm's gone and it's my first Mother's Day without her on the planet. (Even though her ashes are still sitting on my grand piano in the living room).

My mother was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1919. Her father was a minister and a cabinet maker and he did some of both over the years as my mother grew up. She and her two sisters and parents drove from Omaha, Nebraska in a Model T Ford all the way to Seattle where my Mom mostly grew up around Alki Point. She mentioned swimming in the Puget Sound and going to the movies in the early 1920s from the time she was 5 years old. She said the movies were only about a nickel then.

When the Great Depression hit she said the family had a hard time keeping a roof over their heads but that somehow they managed even with leather hinges on the doors and a home converted 50 gallon drum made into a wood stove to keep warm nights. Her sister who was the oldest got a job at a local movie theater and got married before she was 20 because she was so pretty. Mom was the youngest and turned 20 in 1939 but didn't get married until 1946. She supported her Mom and herself from age 18 until she got married. After she graduated High School she got a job making ladies hand bags and then worked for Bell Teleophone in Customer Service.

Dad and she met in church and married in 1946 and then I came along in 1948. We all moved from Seattle in 1952 and we lived in Vista,El Cajon, Tujunga, and then finally Glendale, (all California cities) until I grew up (I was 21 in 1969).

My mother was a very kind person and this kindness rubbed off on me. My father was a very intelligent and intense but humorous and always laughing person and his intelligence and intensity also rubbed off on me. If I'm ever humorous then I got that from my Dad too. He's been gone now since 1985 when I was 37.

Happy Mother's Day Mom. The world is pretty lonely without you and Dad in it.