Goodbye Momma Bear...and Thank You

My Mom died last month and I was going to write something on here about that and about her but it's honestly just too much for me to handle right now. So, I thought I'd post something I wrote about her last year around Mother's Day, something that I am quite glad that she got to read for herself.

Rest in Peace, beautiful. The world just became a markedly less funny place and life, particularly Christmas, will never be the same without you.


Look at her- ain't she adorable?

Most of the people that read my blog know that my Mom reads it too and they know that she spends no small amount of time and effort trying to get me to stop cursing and blaspheming and such.

What they probably don't know is that after my parents divorced back in 1976, she raised me by herself while working two jobs. We moved from place to place (Florida, Maryland, Philadelphia, Florida again, etc..) and all the time she worked two jobs. Always.

She would work all day and then, around 4 or so, go to her other job. I would try to make sure that the place was clean when she got home later because I knew- I could see- how very tired she was when she walked in each night. Many nights I'd try (without much success, I'm afraid) to make dinner for her. Turns out boiling a bag of creamed chipped beef can, in fact, be done poorly.

Still, we were a team. We counted on each other and we needed each other. And we always delivered for each other. Always.

We had some difficult times, me and Mom. At some point when we lived in New Port Richey, Florida we lived on watermelon for two weeks. Seriously.

Yet somehow she always managed to make what might otherwise have been viewed as a dismal set of circumstances seem not so bad at all.

In 1978, every little bit of extra money that she had saved was spent on taking me to Disney World down in Orlando, Florida. For a kid who was adjusting to another new neighborhood, another new school and still trying to figure out how to get over missing his Dad and his brothers and sisters? Well, that was HUGE.

Now that I'm an adult, I've been all around the world, I've seen fantastic things, eaten foods I never thought I would, been exposed to cultures entirely different from my own, and met incredible people from every continent. But that trip? That trip remains the best of them.

We had a saying, the two of us- "It's you and me against the world." Seems we didn't do all that bad after all.

I Love my Mom and I'm really glad that she's still around to read this (admittedly poorly written) tribute to her.

If she doesn't already know, I woud like this blog post to remind her that I have not forgotten that we're still a team and that she is, clearly, the MVP.

Always.

Dear Mom- Thank you for working those two jobs for all that time. Thank you for teaching me right from wrong. Thank you for instilling a work ethic in me. Thank you for insisting that I always treat other people the way that I would expect to be treated.

And most importantly, thank you for being there- even when (especially when) I wasn't exactly the model of a good son.

I LOVE YOU MORE THAN I COULD EVER POSSIBLY PUT INTO WORDS.

Always,

Buzz