Mom, I remember that time...

 

 

Today is my mom’s birthday and Sunday is Mother’s Day. I don’t think that this time of year ever won’t be emotional, but given recent challenges and with Chris’s wedding on the horizon, I’m feeling her absence particularly strongly right now. I’m thinking of her and remembering her and feeling the need to record those memories. This certainly isn’t a “best of” list and nothing is retold half as well as she would have done, but it’s my simple way of honoring and memorializing her. So, enjoy a few pieces of Pam. I remember…

·     That time she got in a “war of the bird” (aka middle finger) with a teenage kid who cut her off coming north on US-23. I still remember who the kid was, so if he was 16 or 17, I must have been 10 or 11. The incident happened around the Bob Evans/Wesleyan Woods area and the battle of raised fingers and hard stares continued until the kid split off to Sandusky Street and we continued on towards the Williams Street exit. My response, “well, that was interesting.”

·     That time she signed up every, single year to be class mom in elementary school and chaperoned just about every field trip that I remember. She threw a mean class party and she always bought treats for our field trip group even thought it was against the rules (probably couldn’t get away with that today—nah—she still could).

·     That time we saw a man roughing up a woman in the U.S. Store parking lot (which also was the parking lot for a hole-in-the-wall bar and our church) and Mom stopped the car and called for her to get in. We didn't know the woman, and she didn’t get in the car, but the man charged our car and Mom (safely locked in the car) kept him distracted long enough for the woman to get away. No cell phones back then people, but Pam Anderson wasn’t about to turn a blind eye and drive away, even if her young child was with her. That was scary, but maybe one of the best lessons about responsibility that she ever gave me.

·     That time when I got in a physical altercation in high school (not my finest moment) and came home sobbing, because I thought I might get suspended. Mom’s first response was, “Damn it, Kylie. You hit with an open hand, so it doesn’t leave a mark!”

·     That time she instinctively drove me straight to Dairy Queen to ease my first heartbreak.

·     That time she played along with all the smartass college dudes who sent emails or voicemails to “Pamela Anderson.” She always said you could tell her apart from the Baywatch babe, because she didn’t have her wedding ring tattooed on her finger.

·     That time she taught me the best hangover prevention…Alka-Seltzer and Advil before bed. Evidently, back in her heyday, mom could drink them under the table and was pretty disappointed at my inability to a) hold my liquor and b) drink scotch.

·     That time she got a four-week-old Lainey to stop crying and to fall sleep asleep immediately, just by laying her on her chest and humming. Aw, man, that’s the one that really gets me. Okay, here come the tears…

Happy Birthday, Mom!