MY ESSAYS START WITH ONE SIMPLE POINT and then I let them flow through space with little concern about an outcome. My thought this day has been centered around how much I miss my mom.
Perhaps the media advertising directed this week to honor Moms has been the stimulus. I’ve been thinking about her a lot lately. Hard to believe she has been gone from planet Earth for more than a decade.
I recall her with such fondness. She was a master at balancing family obligations, career, and recreation, and she certainly spearheaded the happiness quotient with her remarkable positive attitude. She was also clearly adept at handling life’s challenges. She was a great role model for me, her third child. She was completely in charge, yet she was as free as a bird. How cool was that! Using today’s vernacular - she had her act together. My dad loved and respected her beyond belief. How lucky they both were - and they knew it. What a great lady.
This week all the local restaurants are offering Mother’s Day specials featuring glazed ham, various seafood and roasted prime beef. She never really liked going to such events at our restaurants, or country club. The lavish displays led to over-indulgence and the considerable expense never meshed with her frugal ways. She preferred making a Sunday meal for the family asking “Coach,” alias Dad, to grill a 1-1/2” thick bone-in sirloin steak. She would create a homemade salad dressing (Maytag blue cheese) and serve baked potatoes with some complimenting fresh vegetable, usually peas. All plates were adorned with a small piece of parsley. This was pretty much the Adams Mother’s Day meal.
She tried baking and even experimented occasionally with recipes from the NY Times and Ladies Home Journal, but what I really remember was her monthly attempt at a yellow pan cake with a creamy chocolate fudge topping. To her family's repeated delight, she created the hardest chocolate topping (you could place your finger under an edge and lift the entire top off the cake).
On this coming Mother’s Day, I wish I could sit at my family’s dining room table at my designated chair and once more laugh with her at her very successful attempt at my favorite yellow cake dessert.
Happy Mother's Day Mom.