Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Mamie. Mary. Mother-in-law. I remember after Mike & I were married, I told her I didn’t feel comfortable calling her “mom”…she looked at me, smiled and said “I don’t care what you call me…just call me!”
Living 3,000 miles away from family is very difficult. The bright side is that when they come to visit, they stay for days (sometimes weeks) and it turns into really great memories because so much time is spent together. Mamie was always up for adventures: walking around Sumner, sightseeing, bringing home salmon from the Pike Place Market for the bar-b-que, eating spaghetti, chili, lasagna, salads at the dining room table…great focused times just us (Mamie & Pa, Mike & I, Michael Thomas, Samantha (who she called Sabrinni), Nikki (who she called Nicolinni). Just the 7 of us for many days in a row having each other all to ourselves! What a blessing!! In my heart, it helped make up for all the parties and get-togethers happening on Long Island that we knew we were missing.
The best times for me, were happy hours!!! I loved those times with Mamie. She & I would just sit in the living room or at the counter eating melted cheese on matzos and drinking wine and talking before dinner – really sharing thoughts and stories so often feeling more like friends than daughter-in law and mother-in-law, but good, good friends. In the beginning, Mamie would only drink white wine & I would only drink red. As time went on, she started enjoying red & I tolerated white…Now I like them both, and I already had a white-wine and cheese happy hour toast by myself at the counter raising my glass to her while looking up towards heaven because I know that is where she is. They know all about her up there and gladly welcomed her in.
Thank you, Mamie for your love, your friendship, for all the Mother’s Day cards that you sent to me, for all the loaves of Irish soda bread and all the batches of shortbread that you made for me. Thank you for all the Easter candy you sent me so I could fill the kids’ Easter baskets with chocolates and jelly beans. Thank you for the years of Christmas grab-bag giggles and all the prayers I know you said for us.
Thank you for teaching me how to say the rosary (10 years of Catholic school and I didn’t know how to say it), and most importantly for showing me by your example how to love, pray and just keep going. I really love you.
Kathy
