Hello :)
Happy New Year!
Last year for Christmas, my niece put together one of those books where everyone says nice things about someone - for my mom.
I recently reread what I wrote. It’s probably too long and boring for most but I love it.
So, here it is, small stories from our family’s past and feelings for my mom. Thank you for letting me post this about you, Mom!
- - -
Anna-Marie, Annatjie, Bokkie, Matjie, or as I know her, Mom :)
I just looked her up in the dictionary and there is a picture of a model/angel. Ja, she’s that good – I’ve never heard her swear. And she’s that beautiful. In fact, if I had a penny for every person who has said, “Man, your Mom is really good looking,” (to this day!) I’d probably be retiring now. True story.
But as any one who knows her knows, she is even more beautiful on the inside. Mom is the person you hear about in stories who inspires you to be a better person. For example, over the last few years I’ve noticed she is constantly going to lend a hand or support a friend, acquaintance, or someone who is struggling—who Mom has her eye on—BECAUSE SHE CARES! Just recently Mom spent the day holding a woman’s hand while her hubby underwent life-or-death surgery. Seems simple enough, but that’s not the whole story. When Mom was telling me she was going to spend the day with this woman I said, “So she just asked you to come with her?” Turns out, no, it was Mom who asked her if anyone would be with her. The woman started crying when Mom asked if she could come and support her—the woman had been terrified by the thought of going it alone. But Mom noticed that unspoken little detail because she operates in that rare and uncrowded space of genuine compassion and grace. I mean, who does that these days? I’ll tell you who: people in Hallmark movies and MY Mom!
I remember my Mom back when we lived in Camps Bay. In fact, I recently saw a picture of her and us kids taken at a Sea Point studio. Damn–she looks like a Bond girl! But I remember her as the smiling, hugging, source of my joy. She’d take us to Clifton beach where we’d find jelly fish, she took us on the “Blisters for Bread” walking fundraiser all the way to Moullie Point along the promenade, and she made us marshmallow ice-cream-cone clowns for our birthdays (after the Green Point train ride!). She made being a kid fun.
But she could also put her foot down. One time she was taking us on a (Karoo) road trip in our mustard-yellow VW station wagon (the back seat was down: blankets, pillows, toys, and snacks) but we started fighting. Before we were over Kloof Nek (3 minutes from home) she gave us one chance to decide if we wanted to go back or get along. We shut up quick. Because Mom knows how to be the boss.
Oh yes! It takes a boss to look life in the eyes, smile, and move half way across the planet. Can you imagine the guts, vision, strength, coordination, x-factor, and Je ne sais pas that it took to pull that off? Pre-google nogal!
To this day it awes me. My own life’s tremendously challenging journey was only made possible because of my Mom’s incredible “can do” example growing up. It has been the single most profound and meaningful gift anyone has ever given me. With tears in my eyes, thank you, Mom, thank you, thank you, thank you a thousand times over for being the wonderful person you are. Because of you I look at life and think, “I can do that!”.
Four kids, one Mom, and the USA baby! Mom had a job, studies, us, no one else, and she made it all happen (I think she even got a 4.0). Of course, when you’re juggling at that level, once again, you’ve got to keep things reigned in. I remember when we were living on Melbourne street, Utah it didn’t take much to get grounded. One of my friends started asking me things like, “will your Mom ground you if we____________?”. Haha, anything was possible.
But it was worth it. Mom kept up the road trip tradition and took us to Texas, Nevada, Idaho, California, Wyoming, river rafting, camping (remember our awesome blue tent and we all had our own sleeping bags!), Disneyland, and the kid’s holy land, Circus Circus, Las Vegas. Amen! We’d only been in America a few years and I’d seen more of the country than most of my friends. Boss Mom!
I also fondly remember traditions like going to get those amazing double thick milkshakes at Iceberg. I think it was on Mondays that we’d zoot off in our golden Subaru and read from the big-outdoor menu before placing our orders. Aghem, except for Mom that is: “I’ll just have a taste of yours,” she’d say. Oh, great. Haha! I was a greedy little boy because those cups were filled like Mount Hood. (Dean might have refused outright.) But that is one of Mom’s little idiosyncrasies that makes me love her. It warms my heart to see her face light up as she gets that one little bite-of-treat lined up to her mouth. I’ll share a bite with you any day, Mom!
And she deserves it. My life has been blessed as I was raised knowing what “Mom’s cooking” means. Weekly Sunday roasts with South African roast potatoes still haunt my memories (I could live on those). Her homemade meatballs were legendary too. Mom cooked us breakfast (oats on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and tasty wheat on Tuesdays and Thursdays) and dinner every single day of our lives. Who does that??? I mean the only other person is Martha Stewart (and Claudine ;-)! By the way, the memory of her even-if-it’s-off-the-condensed-milk-can-famous birthday cheesecake has fueled thirty years of “keep going” for me. Soon my precious…soon. Hmmmmm…let’s see now…. No! I’m not going to mention the all-holy South African pudding, is that sugar or salt, piano stash day… No… too soon. Too soon.
When I was a teenager and going through a hippie stage, Mom held fast to the wheel. One day, my new friend came to pick me up outside of Botticelli. His car had been spray painted black by hand and might never have been cleaned inside or out. It was what we called a jalopy. Mom took one look at it and said, “You’re going to go in that?” I didn’t see it then but so appreciate now that she had the love and strength to protest my blind excitement of the big wide world. Back then I resented her meddling opinion, now it just feels like love. My Mom loves me!
Oh boy does she. Through the decades of darkness that separated our lives, in fact, there was always light because inside I knew I was loved. There are really no words to describe what that did for me. That unbelievably rare and precious feeling sat firmly inside of me throughout my life. No matter how hard life got, and no matter how terribly long and lonely, I could never give up because I knew that somewhere out there, someone loved me. I knew that I was loved. My Mom’s love never left me and lit my darkest days. Thank you, Mom. Thank you so much for loving me.
And now, time marches on. But did you know that my Mom is a webmaster? Ja. She might be BBC “Born Before Computers” but she’ll google and facebook the hind leg off a donkey. Pay attention kids-you’ve just been schooled!
Mom is so many other things too. She’s an incredibly talented piano player, a former half-marathon runner, a renowned dog whisperer, a natural interior decorator, and highly acclaimed fashionista! I remember going shopping with Mom once and she bought this amazing blouse with huge gold Fleur de Lis on it. I would never have picked it out but she tried it on and it looked amazing. I mean, you probably know I have, like, the most amazing fashion sense, right, but what you probably don’t know is that I got it all from Mom!
But yes, I’m definitely in the second half of my life now and Mom is guiding me again. She told me that she has never skipped a night of washing her face (Waaaaaaat?), which is probably what keeps her looking like Michelle Pfeiffer. But what is it that makes her glow? Well, she’s helped me navigate my own aging and outlook with precious advice like, “only hang out with older people and then you’ll always be the hot one.” Haha. But most transforming, “you know, when you look at your friends and the people you care about, you don’t see their spots and dots and wrinkles and flaws, you see them. It’s who a person is that you end up seeing {and that is up to you}.” It’s that kind of nugget that brings peace to my soul. Now I know, “I’m an oldie but a goodie!” as for Mom, she might be old but she’s gold! I thank my lucky stars and the Lord above for giving me my Mom. A daughter, sister, wife, mother, auntie, friend, and dear, dear Child of God. I’ve all the time in the world for her, she’s magnificent streaks of color and glitter. MY Mom! I love you, Mom.
Merry Christmas:) I’ll be home to butter the Christmas cake pan soon
Kommentare