Have a Wonderful Mother's Day

It is Mother's Day.  And I have a dilemma.  I started sending out text messages, the first one of course was to my very favorite Mother, my own.  Then I sent one to my aunt, my boyfriend's mother, both my grandmothers.  I wanted to keep sending them.  There are so many wonderful mother's who have been in my life.  It is hard to know where to stop and to keep make sure that I sent one to all the important mothers.  So I decided to make a post about all of them.

Me and my Momma at an open
water race

Obviously the most vital Mother in my life is the one who brought me into this world (and as she liked to remind me when I was in trouble, since she brought me into this world, she could take me out).  I had a wonderful childhood and was raised by a woman who loved me very much.  When she wasn't cooking, cleaning, chauffeuring, she was listening to and helping me cope with all the hardships of my middle class suburban teenage life.

She even managed to become a pretty incredible athlete while my three siblings and I were growing up.  I have lost count of the number of marathons and half marathons that she has run.  She has never run to win the race, she runs for the love of the sport.  She passed on her love of sports to me and my siblings and now she passes it on to the entire community as her job is to train people (many who have never run before) to run half marathons.

My mother is an amazing woman and I am so glad to have her in my life.  I have been blessed to have so many other mothers and "mothers" in my life.

One of my grandmothers and some of my church mothers.

Unfortunately there are not a lot of pictures on the internet
from when I was growing up, so this is the best I could find to
picture as many as I could, it is not by any means all of them.

There were of course my relative mothers; my grandmothers and aunts, both natural and foster.  Each of these ladies played a part in my growing up at some point.  With some I went to museums and parks, with some I learned music,  some I would go to when I needed a different way to looks at things but with all of them I learned.  I love each of them in their own right and I know that I would not be where I am today without the influence of these ladies.

Then there were of those were the ladies from church and school and swimming.  The ones who had kids around my age.  From birth until now, these Mommas could solve problems, listen, or put the fear of god in me, or any of us, just as well as our own mothers.

Everyone knows that you cannot forget teachers.  From age 4 on, there was never a year in school when I did not have at least one woman teacher.  They may not all have been mothers in their own rights, but they gave my mother a break and cared for me for at least eight hours a day.

My other grandmother and I

At different points in my life I have had different women as sudo-mothers.  College was no different.  I have a woman here who I call my Valpo-momma.  To most of Valpo she is a force to be reckoned with, but for me she is someone who solves problems and listens and cares.  That makes her a mother to me.

She was not the only mother character I had in Valpo.  The lunch ladies, who I posted about earlier, could be counted as mothers too.  Most of them have children and grandchildren of their own and still they "adopt" everyone of us who goes through their lanes each day. 

Google defines a mother as being "A woman in relation to a child or children to whom she has given birth."  I do not believe that is the whole definition.  They say it takes a village to raise a child, and villages are usually made up of mothers and fathers.  So I say that a mother is any woman in your life who has helped you get where you are today.

I am sure that I have missed some of my mothers in this post.  And I know that there will still be more in my life to come.  But to all you who have helped me and supported me and cared for me through my growing up.  I thank you.  I love you all and I hope that you all have a

Wonderful Mother's Day!!!