Happy Birthday Mommy; Wish you Were Here

Yesterday was an auspicious day: the inauguration, Martin Luther King day, and the 75th anniversary of the birth of CL, my mother, who passed away last spring. I could not help but think throughout the day how she would have loved sharing a special day with the pres and Dr. King. I had to work and so saw very little of the Washington festivities, but caught our good looking president and his lovely wife in the parade walking along waving to the crowd and thought that despite so many ills and sorrows in the world at this time, it is a lovely thing to have a first family that I throughly like. Don't always agree with the politics, but I like them, they are nice and smart and strike me as sincere. My mother, while I did not always share her interests or her point of view, was also nice and smart and sincere and gave me many of the qualities that I like most about myself, and although I feel an odd closeness with her now, I wish like heck that I could talk to her, call her to tell her of my successes to hear her delight and praise, visit and get a warm hug. Those days were gone before she died so that longing is older than the grief, but all of it comes to the surface on such a day as yesterday. Happy Birthday, Mommy; wish you were here.