Always mother of the year to me

To the editor:

“Spring has sprung!  The bird is on the wing ...” 

Passover and Easter are over. The mourning doves nesting in front of my building, fledged. The pool is opening.

I should be happy. But alas, war is happening. Masks are off, then on. Then off.

My friends have been sick. I’m still afraid. In June, yikes, I will be 78 — more time in back than ahead of me. 

Still, I try to smile. We all must try to be happier. 

I am still Zooming, even literally zooming around, albeit, cautiously. But truthfully, I am Zoomed out. I have dared to do more in-person things. I finally visited my Florida family, and am seeing more and more friends, family, too. Neighbors are emerging from our hibernation. We take care.

Bird migration is on and the birds are around, singing and nesting. That’s what they do.

And soon it will be Mother’s Day. Every day should be — and probably is — a mother’s day! I so miss my mother. Each year in The Riverdale Press, my mom, Florence Schneider, was one of the “mothers of the year.” I always entered her into that contest — me and the 7-year-olds. I usually won something: a plant or honorable mention of her.

I loved it. She did, too. She saved all those issues.

My mother is “gone” a long time. I enjoyed her for a long time. My mother missed her mother, but her mother I cannot recall ever talked of missing my great-grandmother, somewhere gone in Europe. 

My father missed his mother, too. I miss him, too. I hope I will be so missed, so longed for with joy and wonderful memories. Entered into the mother of the year contest somewhere.

My mother would be ranting about this virus, offering advice and admonishing the naysayers — even those sadly in our family. She would be furious about the war.  She would denounce that ex-president, you-know-who!

She would be cautious, though, like me. I know she’d check on me every day. On my sisters, too, warning us to be careful. That’s what mothers do, amongst a million other things they do. 

I hear her every day, not just Mother’s Day. 

And I miss her. 

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone, whether you are a mother or not.

Judi Veder