Second Sunday in May...

I forgot Mother's Day once as an adult.  My mother confronted me about it with a rap:

Second Sunday in May
Is Mother's Day
What's that you say
Second Sunday in May?
It's Mother's Day.
MOTHER"S DAY IS THE SECOND SUNDAY IN MAY.

I have never forgotten Mother's Day since.
Today is the first Mother's Day I don't have a mother to call, to send flowers to.
I'm reminded of the first secular song I was allowed to buy:  House of Pain, by Faster Pussycat.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8z4SEbsqbw


My mother and father fought about this song and my right to buy it.  My mother won, somehow...and so I got the single.  I think I was in 10th grade at the time.

After she fought the battle, though, my mother would often ask me is I was in a "House of Pain" and I would always respond:  No, I just like the song.

I no longer like the song.  It's too saccharine; it's too...poorly sung.

Now, I like this song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1moiym6-Nk

Tonight, I'm thinking of my sister and my father.  Their loss is so much more immediate than mine.  My sister has lost a friend and a mother, my father has lost a wife and a best friend.  I hurt for them.

Don't get me wrong, I am sad too.  But I know the truth of things, and the truth is that I was not able to be as close to my mother as my sister and father.  It doesn't mean I didn't love her, nor does it mean that I don't miss her.  It just means that I have other holes to fill, because I've never had an emptiness in the mother department.

Thanks Mom.  Happy Mother's Day.  I will never forget when it is.