HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

 

"THE LANTERNS"

Charles Courtney Curran

 

 

Happy Mother's Day to all who celebrate it on this day. Happy Mother's Day especially to my sister, Glori, and to my sisters-in-law who read my blog, Bonny in Idaho and Dana in Virginia. Also Happy Mother's Day to my Mom in heaven.

 

I was dreading Mother's Day this year, because it is the first Mother's Day without Dan. Of course, Mother's Day is for children to honor their mothers, but Dan always got me a present too. The very first time, I was still pregnant, 7 months along. He gave me a floral arrangement in a blue, white and green large ceramic cup. A month later our home was destroyed by a fire, but I still have that cup, because I had had it at work. It was among the first things I brought into our new home.

 

For the past 25 years or more, Dan had bought me a hanging fuchsia basket to hang on the deck. It has become a family tradition. I was sad this year that I wouldn't be getting a fuchsia.

 

Imagine my surprise and delight when I got home from work Friday afternoon and there was a giant fuchsia-and-white colored fuchsia on my dining room table. When Kristen was home for Dan's funeral she had given Glori the money to get me one for Mother's Day. Talk about a thoughtful daughter!

 

Of course, my best Mother's Day present has always been Kristen. I had trouble with carrying babies and lost two before her and two after her. She was the only little soul to survive to birth.

 

And I am so glad she was the one. She's always been such a good kid. I remember one time when she was little the house got very quiet and I decided I'd better go see what she was doing. I found her sitting on the kitchen counter, the lid off the sugar canister and mountains of sugar all over the counter. I didn't get mad - I was too shocked.

 

In that way, she was very unlike her dad when he was growing up. His mom, Lillian, told the story of how she was always having to tell his older brothers to "Go find Danny and tell him to stop it."

 

Kristen, you are so smart, funny, sensitive and caring. You're so beautiful too - and your beauty is on the inside as well as the outside. Thank you for being my daughter.

 

As for myself, I continue to recover from Dan's illness and death. Work is going much better now, but I am still trying to fight with pension fund holders and oil well companies to get the income Dan was receiving each month. One happy surprise was how easy and pleasant it was to set the wheels in motion to get his Social Security.

 

Another pleasant surprise was how swiftly the life insurance was handled by the North Dakota Public Employees Retirement System. Now that I have insurance, I am busy arranging for a new roof and a new deck, without which I will never be able to sell the house, should I ever decide to sell.

 

And also, I am getting a new front door. The door we have is original to our 1929 stucco bungalow, and the inside door knob fell off so many times we started using a needle-nose pliers to open the door (Necessity is the Mother of Invention). My brother-in-law, Dick, had been worried for my safety so Dick, you will be glad to know, yes, I have set up an appointment for someone to come by and measure for a new door.

 

Glori and I treated ourselves to a modest Mother's Day lunch at Fried's German Restaurant in Mandan yesterday. We were happy to note that the forsythia is in bloom, and I saw a few yellow tulips, though most were still only in bud.

 

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The painting above is featured in a gift book called "My Wish For You". The wish that accompanies this painting is "Many Lovely Evenings". I wish many lovely evenings for all of you this summer.