Happy Mothers Day to everyone – mothers, daughters, brothers, sons, sisters, husbands and friends. This is my first Mother’s Day since my grandmother passed in December and it’s my fourth without my mother. This is not a day for sadness but honoring and recollection.
With each new year the clarity of my memory’s lens fades and what remains are the essence of pure feeling. Those feelings are the foundation of my being, the comfort and security of a hug, the dose of “act right” from a swatted bottom, the confidence and love from a gleam of pride at the simplest of accomplishments.
Portrait of my mother, Arnita L. Thurston, 1967
I share below a collection of sayings, moments and smiles.
–Little Mouth, aka Sugar Lump, aka Belinda Yvonne
“Get up!”
Who needed alarm clocks? I don’t know about ya’ll but the morning ritual at 1522 Newton could be harsh. But it effectively got you out of bed. The floor would rattle and shake from my mother stomping in a march the length of the house from front to back on the first floor, WHUR blaring and her repeated mantra “Good morning! Get up!”