Mommeries.......

Mother's Day. I immediately think of  huge bunches of dandelions that we used to pick in the field across the street and bring home for our moms. Yellow stained hands and clothes. Big smiles. My dad would take all of us shopping (all 6 of us) and buy bathrobe & slippers and we would do our best to behave on Mother's Day.
My mother was always a young, hip mom. I don't ever remember going to the dept. stores to pick out clothes. I would come home from school and there on my bed would be some new, really cool clothes that she had picked up for me. Always loved them, never had to return anything. I had whatever was in style..beatle boots, mini skirts, ruffled bell bottoms, just like Cher wore.
Mom was a great cook, too. We had a "big" dinner every night. Steak with handcut fries, stuffed pork roasts, and her pasta & sauce were heavenly. That was usually saved for a Sunday, when a really big dinner was planned. Every Sunday night however, we kids actually looked forward to a light meal..soup & sandwich and Lassie on TV.
After we all grew up & moved out, she had plenty of time to cook and she would cook as if we all still lived home and pop up at our houses with all kinds of great food. Some of the best Christmas presents from her were baskets filled with cookies & cakes and all kinds of jellies and breads. Delicious. And always there was a little something tucked in there especially for me. A pin or a little antique something that she knew I would like. To this day, when we are at a family gathering, my brother -in -law J will just up & say " I miss Evelyn. Boy, she could cook" My son T has made it a mission to make sauce , just like Nana's. It is never the  same, I don't think any of us will ever get it exactly right, but sometimes we get it close. There was just something, she had " the knack".
Growing up, our house was always impeccably clean and very stylish. I can remember lovely furniture, mostly early amercian style growing up. Then when we moved to a bigger city, into a more modern house, we all came home to find a pink nubbly curved sofa and orange crushed velvet chair with lovely oriental rug. WOW !!
Her hair color also changed on a whim. My mom was a natural light blond. She had very fine hair and mostly kept it short and would pin curl it up with bobby pins and then brush it out. So the style mostly stayed the same..the color was another matter. She went from platinum to black one day while we were at school. Oops !!Next day she went back to the hairdresser and they tried to strip out the black and she ended up with red hair for a few months. Very adventurous and I must say it has rubbed off on most of us girls. I seriously would think nothing of going lavender tomorrow.
My mom also gave us some great laughs in our adult years and it never fails when we all get together, someone will end up using one of her funny words. She called Zinfandel wine-"zymphony" wine. She always served it in a "caraf-a". She always said "pa-sketti" for spaghetti and when my sister B got married , she thought the priest was a hunk. So she sidles up to me & my sister R and says.."did you know that he is married and has kids?? I thought priests had to be "cele-brate" " So it never fails that when we hear the song "Celebration" at a wedding, we always start laughing uncontrollably and think of mom and the priest.
Sadly, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996 and died a year later. Not a day goes by that I don't think of her.
A mother's job is tough, the toughest.
So today, I honor my mom and all the great & funny things about her. She was taken away from us way too soon. But, every time I smell my sister B's pasta sauce, I catch a glimpse or every once in a while my sister R will turn her head a certain way and there she is.... and always, she will be in my heart.