Mother's Day Sucks.
It's Mother's Day and I wish you a happy one, but let's face the truth here -- this is not a happy day for a lot of us who have lost a mother to CJD. I try to make the best of it by focusing on the living, especially because I have a wonderful stepmother and her mother is a wonderful grandmother to me. But we also have to remember the dead.
My mother's name was Phyllis Larson. She was a Led Zeppelin fan. My mother liked rock n' roll. I never did figure out if she was a democrat or a republican and maybe she didn't know either. I do suppose she was republican, but I'll never know for sure. One thing was for sure; my mother was cosmopolitan. She was not a woman that enjoyed anything less than room service. No camping for her. She liked shopping and her favorite place was Stanford Shopping Center. She was a Raider fan. I think she'd be happy with this year's first-round draft pick. She went to a Suns playoff game with me a few years ago when they played the Spurs. History is repeating with the Suns right now, in case you don't follow sports. I think mom would have enjoyed the Spots 620 KTAR nose bandaids everyone wore at the game the other day. Two of her favorite stores were Sephora and Ulta. She liked comfortable shoes. She liked Anderson Cooper on CNN and "Everybody Loves Raymond." Her vice was chocolate. She'd be happy to know I'll be in Mexico this year on the anniversary of her death, having fun with my new family. She'd be absolutely fascinated with you all and to know all about the disease that killed her. Thank you for visiting my blog about CJD. Please leave a comment to tell me about your mother when you get a chance. Thank you.
--Heather Larson
posted by Heather Larson at Sunday, May 13, 2007
3 Comments:
Thanks for bloggin' about yo' mama. Yeah, Mom's day sucks.
I called Grandma, called my Mom's sis.. then took myself out to Mother's Day Brunch, since I am a new mother to a dwarf rabbit named Bob. Bob the Bunny. At Brunch I ate vegan french toast and watched Moms get flowers and presents and look sternly at their progeny. Hmm.
My mother was Rebecca Gordon. She had beautiful hands. She was born and raised in Alaska, was a National Merit Scholar, got a full ride to Stanford. Dropped out after one year, got distracted by the big city and the Vietnam War. She was a Grammar Nazi, silly, smart and shy. Very lovely woman.. all the neighborhood boys would come over and blush and do chores for her.. I never had to lift a finger. She loved College Basketball and the Mariners. Her favorite team was N. Carolina; I bought a Tarheels magnet the other month for her whilst airporting in Raleigh. She went to all my performances, every one, every play I ever wrote or performed. She would worry about me in LA, she would want me to move back home and be a teacher. She would want to know if I am eating. She would think being a vegan is silly and strange and unhealthy. She would sip her Diet Coke and tell me that she met a nice man at work, he seemed interesting and smart and doesn't want kids. She would dye her hair and shop at Coldwater Creek and buy Clark's shoes. She would call me and ask how to use her new cell phone. She would cut out announcements in the paper about all my friends who are getting married. She would listen to Tori Amos and Jewel and Alanis Morrisette which would annoy me. Well, maybe I could have a sense of humor about it. I think I could. She had the most beautiful handwriting. I miss her cards.
5/14/2007 9:23 AM
Funny, I was the one who listened to Tori and Jewel and Alanis and it annoyed my mom. Actually, she really was only bothered by the Tori Amos records in my teenage years. I wonder what my own mother would have thought about the vegan thing. I went vegan a few months after her passing, despite the fact that my mom's CJD was genetic so it doesn't matter what I eat anyway. My mom was kind of shy too. Definitely not a social butterfly. She liked a few people to be close to. Her inner circle was enough to sustain her. She like me, my dad, her boss's wife. She was friends with the guy who ran the La Quinta Inn in Fremont, near where she worked. That's where she stayed when she went to the office. She was a telecommuter. (Now I am too, so strange). My mom's hair and nails were always impeccable. She never left the house without her hair and makeup done. She raised me to be independent yet feared the day when I would leave home for good and always tried to deter me from doing it. It worked. She got her way! I didn't move out until after she passed. My mom never called me and rarely used her cell phone. But she never pushed me to get married or date. She'd say it didn't look like there were any men good enough out there to date! But she'd come home from wherever she'd been out shopping or whatever and tell me about all the cute guys she did see that she thought were good enough. She taught me how to use the microwave as soon as I was tall enough to reach it so I'd never go hungry.
5/14/2007 10:31 AM
Hi Heather, thanks for your comments to my post recently. I never thought anyone else would find my blog - it was somewhere I could drop my thoughts into. I'm so sorry about your mother - she sounds very cool and awesome. Like mine. :) They could've been great friends.
4/24/2008 7:28 AM
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