I’d love to hear your mother stories. For is it inherently “weird” to think of so many women as your mother? I’ve had four, in my growing up family alone, but honestly I have to say there were other “mentor mothers” along the way. I am grateful to all for their guidance!
So, you dear readers ~ have you also had more than one mother. Do I see some hands?
The truth is families have always been in transiton. I have recently read Wild by Cheryl Strayed, From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail.
And 
Nana with my brother, Jeremy, one Christmas.
Nana smoothing my hair on June 24, 1978.
Aileen, my adoptive mother. Lady of rare steak.
With Nana and Mom Aileen, on high school graduation day, 1974.
Aileen, before she graduated from Women’s Medical College in Philadephia.
Jackie, my step-mother. Lady of Spaghetti and Meatballs.
My stepmother, Jackie with my Dad, Bud, on June 24, 1978.
And Gail, my birth mother. Lady of Pizza.
Gail, as she graduated high school. She loved pizza.
These ladies are why I grew to love myths of epic proportion, like Homer.
And tales, like Grimms Fairy Tales and Hans Christian Anderson.
And to revere the spiritual sacredness of kitchen fires; and to write my novel, City of Ladies, The Story of Lost Bread, Pain Perdue.
So who do you count as your mother? Your birth mother? Maybe it’s your mother-in-law? Step-mother? Adoptive mother. Mother figure. And Grandmother. Who have I missed?
Happy Mother’s Day!