Celebrating the mothers of my life

In most — not all — households, for better or worse, it's the Mother who's at the centre of the swirling maelstrom known as the family. Her relationship with other members of the family — particularly those who are younger than she is — is complex. It's multi-layered and ever-changing. It's often infuriating, usually melodramatic.

For daughters, it reaches some kind of an apex when we hear ourselves say, "I don't want to turn out like my mother," and we realize as we're saying it that it's already happened.

In the end, if we had a good mother — and probably more of us did than not — we're grateful to have turned out like her. Not exactly like her, of course. Let's be realistic and not get too sentimental.

I hope you've had a great day, whether you're a mother or not.

Here are some of the mothers of my life.
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My mother (above) was very fastidious and never went out unless she was at least a little bit "fixed up." She's not wearing one of her stylish outfits here but you can see, even for a drive to the shore, she's wearing white trousers and a pretty multi-coloured blouse. (I, on the other hand, seem not to have taken too much trouble with my appearance.) That's Dad over there too.

We can all hear Dan's Mom's voice in this photo (above): "What do you think, Daniel? Am I right?"

Dan's younger brother, John, with their Mom. Must have been the '80s. See their glasses?

My sister Marilyn, with baby Lisa who was born in Scotland.

William was a little intimidated by his Nana — she wouldn't have had it any other way — until he figured out that where he was concerned, she was a pushover. They had a lot in common as you can almost see by the facial expressions of each of them.

Mum loved being a grandmother — "Nanny" — and sweet little Lisa was her first grandchild. You can see they were adorable together.

I celebrate my own motherhood too. I took a lot of people by surprise when I became a mother. When William was little, some people — meaning well, no doubt — would refer to me as his grandmother. He didn't like that and he would declare, indignantly, that his grandmother was in Mississauga. He's more tolerant nowadays.

This photo was taken today in Mahone Bay, NS. He had worked overnight and he willingly got out of bed before his sleep was over to take part in the Mother's Day dinner ritual. Who could ask for anything more?