My Mom, The Bad, And The Ugly

What could be so ‘bad’? I mean, “What better way to celebrate Mother’s Day than to tell all of you a little bit about my Mother!?” Well, that would have been a GREAT opening line had I have been able to post this on Mother’s Day. However, since I am a day late I guess I’ll just go with “speaking of moms…” Sorry mom. I’ve posted about my dad a couple of times here and have yet to really go all that deep into my relationship with my mom so let me tell you now. My mother and I have a great relationship. I guess you could call me a little bit of a “Momma’s Man” (no “boy” here), her and I talk at least once a week for usually at least an hour (usually longer) each time. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any earth shattering, tear jerking, side stitching, stories to tell. But that’s not to say that her and I haven’t been through a lot. Yesterday, on Mother’s Day, I wanted to make this a happy go lucky post about how amazing my mother is. That came out wrong, she’s just as amazing today as she was yesterday… Ah, whatever, hopefully you get the point. Moving on… Today, I realized that some of the things that make her so amazing aren’t so happy go lucky.

Here is where it gets ugly. My mother is a fighter. And as such, she has been through many battles. Fortunately, I was too young to remember the worst ones, but the stories are engraved in my brain just the same. The male (not “man”) who contributed to half of my genetic makeup impregnated and dated my mom when she was 16. He then joined the military, developed a drug habit, and became verbally and physically abusive to the point that my mom thought that her only way out of the situation was to pack me up overnight and take me with her to Chicago for a year where we were (for a time) homeless and living off of handouts. When we came back to the east coast she worked two (sometimes three) jobs in order to feed and clothe me. I cannot believe the things that my mom has done and continues to do for my sister and I, and I am so grateful that I was not able to see (and remember) this part in our lives. Since then, obviously things have changed.

So we’ve covered the Bad, and I think that the taste of Ugly that I gave you was more than sufficient. Now, let me tell you about My Mom. She is a Mom! And by that I mean that her entire world, all of her decisions, in some way shape or form are for her children. I had an amazing dad (no, not the guy I talked about earlier, that guy sucks), and still I hope that I could be half of the father that my mother was/is to me. Even though my son’s mother and I are no longer together, I want him to respect and emulate (read a book) his mother as much as I do mine. Funny thing about this, I don’t know if my mother will ever even see this post. And I’m ok with that. Hopefully my actions will speak for themselves and surpass any praise that I could verbalize. So I’ll end her here. Mom, thank you for being you. Thank you for going through The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and managing to come out the other side as My Mom. I love.

Until next time, Happy Belated Mother’s Day!