A/N: Just another letter to Mommy-dearest.

Why I Love My Mommy

Dear Mom,

Life threw me another curve ball Mom. I’m not going to be able to see you for Mother’s Day this year. Sorry. But when the girls get summer break we’ll come and spend a couple weeks with you and Daddy. I know its crappy consolation but what can I say? I have to work, with the two mortgages, utilities, and everything else this month I can’t take off.

You’ll never believe what your genius daughter did this time! I drove the car without oil! It’s in the shop. I forgot Jack changed the oil and managed to ‘misplace’ the new oil. So that’s something else I have to pay.

Friday is Mommy and Andrea day, like always but this Friday she hopped in the minivan and hugged me. Smiling that innocent little devil grin of hers she said “Mommy I got you something.”

She preceded to pull a construction paper book out and hand it to me. The cover was red with a white page glued on with a picture of two stick people in triangle dresses. Above the one in the red dress with the straight lined brown hair hovered the name “Mame” the other person was wearing a blue triangle and had squiggly yellow hair above it was Me Andrea. I smiled and opened the book.

“We had to write a book all about why we love our mommies!” she said brightly. “I didn’t know what to say. We just love our mommies because right?” she asked me.

The on the first page was the blue triangle girl with a red spot on her leg. It said “I love my mommy because: she kisses my hurts even with they are bloody.” I about laughed. The next page was a huge red triangle on half of it then a little Andrea on the other side with a red face. “I love my mommy because: she always loves me even when I yell at her.” I kept flipping through the pages there were all together ten reasons my daughter loved me. My favorite was “I love my mommy because: she knows even when she don’t.”

Lordy Mom. It’s been years since I thought you knew everything. Seems like a billion years ago that you and I sat in the ice cream parlor on main street, me with my little pink dress and blond curls that silly little doll tucked into a seat next to me. How can all that time have passed so quickly?

All this got me to thinking. What would I have said? Probably something stupid that wouldn’t seem to make sense now. I’m sure one day Andrea will be going through her box of special treasures, I’ve been collecting since she was born, she’ll see this and think it was the dumbest thing ever. But as soon as I got home and cooked dinner, and fed and bathed, and read bed time stories to, and got one more glass of water for my children I sat down at my computer. I sifted through all the jokes of the day and spam and every e-mail from other moms setting up play dates or asking if I have their child’s toy. Finally with the days doings done I set out to write you. So here we go. All the reasons I love my mommy.

I love my mommy because:

1- she taught me to always follow my heart.

2- she never gave up on me, even when I did.

3- she pushed me when I dug my feet in.

4 - she always loved me.

5- she paid for my college.

6- she taught me all about home repairs from pulling up a toilet to putting in windows to building bookshelves to well everything.

7-she warned me that my Jack was trouble and didn’t say ‘I told you so’ when it turned out she was right.

8-she put up with my rock bands, strange friends, and smart remarks.

9-she never faltered to check the map.

10- she’s just down right, absolutely, the most perfect mother in the world. She’d have to be to have taught me all I could ever need to know and still hold my hand after I screwed it up.

Yep, I love you Mom. Just because I won’t be there next weekend, of forget to call some Sundays don’t make it a lie. It just means I’m practicing the most flattering art! Impersonation. I grew up to be just like you and am taking on the world. So I’ll come home soon. Take care, give Dad a kiss for me, tell Bub and Sis I said hey. If you run into my old friends tell them I’m doing fine. That I’m a proud soccer mom.

Your Daughter