Mom's Day

This is Mother's Day. I sort of felt like writing something even though my mother died five years ago this coming July 4th. My mother was a registered nurse. She worked for the Columbus Public School system as a school nurse. I think for a while when I was very young she had thoughts of me being a doctor. She probably envisioned me performing open-heart surgery in some big hospital. By about the time I was in the 7th grade she had to have discarded that notion given the fact that for the first six years of my academic career I received about three A's on my report cards, and all of those were in Physical Education. I would guess that for the next few years she would have settled for my just working in a hospital as a pharmacist or an anesthesiologist. But that dream faded too. By the time I was about sixteen or seventeen my mom had to figure that the only way I was going to get into a hospital was as a patient, and that sometimes seemed pretty likely.

Anyway, many years later, when my mother was diagnosed with cancer, and her days were clearly numbered, I decided that I would make a little video of her life just to remind her that she had enjoyed a long, fruitful life. Unfortunately she died before I got very far on it. But after a few days of thought, I decided to finish it anyhow. However, instead of it being something for my mom, it's just about her.

I always remind the few people who have seen this over the past five years that any time they want to turn it off, it's okay. The life of someone else's mother probably is not the most exciting subject in the world, and the video isn't going to win an Academy Award for excellence anyway. Fact is, my mother probably deserves better, but then, I'd say that most mothers do.