« A Wee Bit Freaked Out | Main | "I Only Have a Few 'Things.'..." »

May 11, 2004

Happy Birthday, Mom

Today would've been Charlsie's 71st birthday. It's so odd to imagine Mom in her 70s... but I guess it's odd to imagine her in her 20s or 30s too. I only got to know Mom as a woman in her 40s, 50s, and 60s. Sometimes I feel cheated to have only "had her" for 30 years, but then I consider my dear friends whose time with their mothers was far shorter than that. I truly am one of the luckiest people on the planet. Not only was I born to the amazing Charlsie Gillespie, but I had her in my life for 30 years... much of that time to myself.

I never considered myself unfortunate for growing up in a single-parent household because of who that single parent was. What an amazing, beautiful, creative, brilliant, stubborn, independent woman my mother was! And though I NEVER resented hearing the words, "Bonnie, you are JUST like your mother" (a phrase that makes so many women cringe), when I get to hear my great aunt, with a catch in her throat, say to me, "Bonnie, you come from the best stuff. You are just like Charlsie was at your age," I smile through tears. Because while I didn't know Mom at 33, I have a few decades ahead of me for which I DO have a reference point for who she was.

And if I ever forget, it seems I can just look inside to be sure.

Happy Birthday, Momma.

Posted by bonnie at May 11, 2004 8:53 AM