Happy Mother's Day To My Sweet Mom!

This is my sweet mom. The picture you see here was taken with my cell phone. Sometimes you just have to resort to what ever you have available when you want to capture a memory in a frame.
My mom is a character. Even at 88 years of age she has quite the complex set of attributes that bring warmth and laughter to my heart. She thinks in all these years I don't know her. Non of it's true. I know my mother.
Can you see Winston. He is staunchly sitting there in front of my mother military style for a reason. He knows my mother is going to sneak him some people food and he's just waiting patiently.
We don't allow Winston to have people food. My mother knows this. My last dog Babs had people food and died of kidney failure. My vet informed me, people food really isn't all that great for dogs. He said a great deal of it isn't all that great for people either, which is why you shouldn't feed it to your dog. So my cute little mother thinks I don't have a clue that all the while Winston is visiting she is sneaking him people food.
I wish I could write down all the means and ways my mother finagles and funnels this food to Winston. I'm telling you, she is down right creative in how she gets it done, even with me sitting right there in front of her, watching!
The other day Winston and I went for a walk over to my moms. The second we entered her house, Winston did the same thing he always does, he jumped right up on her lap scaring the tar out of her. As soon as she realized Winston had come for a visit she was ecstatic. It wasn't long after arriving she ask me to get her some cheese and crackers. I'm not sure, but I really think this was just part of her plan. I don't think my mother was hungry for cheese and crackers at all. But I did as she asked and soon after appeared in her living room with the food.
After handing her the goods, I took a seat in the leather chair. We started talking about this, that, and the other when suddenly a piece of cheese fell on the floor. Winston of course snarfed it right up in a half second, licking his chops like he'd died and gone to heaven.
"Mom", I said firmly. "Did you do that on purporse?" You cannot feed Winston people food.
"I know", she tells me emphatically, "I didn't give him any food!" She states this in complete humble innocence, like she really believes herself. "It must of just fallen on the floor." she tells me with no particular expression, like she didn't just orchestrate the whole thing.
I sat there chuckling inside myself while I watched the entire cracker and the cheese that was once rested on top of it, fall to the carpet, one little piece at a time. If you look close enough at the photo, you can see she's nibbling the cracker like a mouse. And for a good reason too, she's implementing her fiendish plot.
I said to her, "Looks like Winston is getting more of that cheese and cracker than you are." She just smiled and shrugged her shoulders like she didn't know or care.
I don't bother to argue with her anymore. I know what she's doing and I know she's getting a big kick out of doing it.
It's like when I gave up on scolding her about Goliath. Goliath nearly lost his life a few times running to my mom's to get his daily treat. My mom loved feeding Goliath hot dogs and there was no stopping her. There was a beaten path right to my mother's back door where he traversed daily for his Oscar Mayer Wiener! No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't keep him home. He was shot with buckshot, stabbed with a ski pole, and tied up in a neighbors garage, all for a fat ladened frankfurter. Feeding Goliath hot dogs was the highlight of my mother's day!
The other night I went to my mom's to fix her TV. She'd accidentally gotten it on the wrong station and couldn't get it back to satellite mode. I didn't take Winston with me this time. She was so relieved when I finally got her teli, as she calls it, to work once more. I gave her a hug and kissed her goodbye and headed out the door.
It was dark outside when I locked things up and made my way down the sidewalk. There's a big ark light that sheds a soft glow around my mother's old red brick home. I stopped and turned around only to see my childhood incased in the light. My frame suddenly felt ten years old again, and I started to cry. As I looked at the old home, memories came flooding into my mind and heart like a river during the peak of spring when the snow is on a rapid meltdown. Everything just washed through me hard and fast. I thought of who I am and what I enjoy in my life and then I thought about how much I love my mother.
My mother gave me the blessed gift of life and with that a complete and perfect staggering amount of joy! Real joy, the kind that permeates a soul and brings the finest gratification known to the human heart! Everything I am, everything I enjoy, every breath I take, I owe to my wonderful mother.
The tears rolled down my cheeks all the way home. My heart heaved under the weight of thoughts swimming around my head, thoughts that were trying to make my heart comprehend the day that's going to come all too soon, when my mom won't be there anymore. It was a long walk home.
So this is the reason I try to remember everyday. Everyday I try to squeeze tight to the simple things I love about her like, the look in her eyes when she smiles, the canny way she walks with her cane, or the bent over form she takes when she strolls behind her red buggy. I try to memorize every last detail of that pepsi can she's always reaching for in the fridge, the straw poking out like a beacon of light, or the way she pours it into the little glass with her fragile arthritic hands. I laugh when I see her pour her Pepsi. I fully believe cherry Pepsi is keeping my mother alive. These days I enjoy caring for her and watching the simple tiny fragments of her life that bring her joy. Fragments that are below what you or I might consider a joyous moment . . .fragments, such as feeding Winston.
Happy Mother's day mom. In this life, you have been the perfect mother for me! A wonderful mother that has filled my life with all the happiness a girl could ever ask for!