Before I became a mother, I used to go home every year for Mother’s Day.  I would spend a wonderful day visiting with my mother and with my grandmother.  Since my love of flowers had come from them both, I would often give my mother a gift that had something to do with gardening, and my grandmother an Azalea plant or a flat of Snapdragons…two of her favorites.  If we had time, I would help her plant the flat of flowers.

As my family grew, I would also have my children with me on Mother’s Day and they would bring me coffee in bed and little gifts they had chosen with their dad and the sweet homemade cards they had each made.   It really didn’t matter to me what we did; I just wanted to be surrounded by them and their love.

Mother’s Day is a bittersweet holiday for me now…as it is for many of us for various reasons.  My beloved grandmother is gone and hopefully spending time in a more beautiful garden somewhere.  Now that she isn’t here to visit, I’m so glad I have those memories of time spent with her on Mother’s Day. 

My mother hasn’t been the same since her stroke five years ago.  We will spend Mother’s Day together and maybe it will be a good day and I will see glimmers of the woman she once was.  It will be a different Mother’s Day than it used to be, but at least I can see her face and hear her voice and remember the way things were before.

My youngest child lives not far from me and I will get to be with her on Mother’s Day.  I’m very grateful for that time with her because I know how busy her life is these days.  My other children live across the country and I will hear from them and they will probably send lovely gifts that will mean a lot to me.  But it isn’t the same.

Every mother wants to spend Mother’s Day with her children.  More than dinner out, flowers, candy, jewelry…what we really want is time with our children…even after they are grown up adults with lives and families of their own. 

So, I will do my best on Mother’s Day to not be sad and to be grateful to and for the people around me.  I will, however, remember the many Mother’s Day holidays when life felt perfect and I thought I was the luckiest mom ever.

If you have the chance to be with your mom on Mother’s Day, don’t miss the opportunity to give her some special memories that she will treasure all of her life.  Because one day, you will treasure those memories too!