Mothers' Day - Hallmark Is Clueless.

Every day is Mothers' Day. That is the truth. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of my children. I worry about their health. I want them to be happy. I want them to be financially secure. I want them to be content in their own skins. I want them to think I did a good job as a mother. I hope they will.

Forget all the Mothers' Day cards with the smarmy greetings. The reality is more than Hallmark can handle. Today I watched a pair of mourning doves start to build a nest in the eaves of my Tucson home. They took such care to fashion the nest with just the right leaves, twigs and fallen oleander blossoms. They shied away , but leaned in protectively, when I aimed my camera at their chosen location for a home.

I lean back, watching them, and remember my first nest. A Quonset hut in veterans' housing on the campus of the University of Arizona. 33 Polo Village. ( It was built around an old polo field). $33.00 a month rent, including utilities. No credit cards, no TV, no checking account, no washing machine or telephone. Just lots of love and two dogs - one our own and one we - "adopted" from my father -in law when he re-married and Spooky couldn't adjust. We had no phone, so I had to call my parents from a pay phone in the middle of the complex to tell them that I was pregnant - about 9 months and one day from my wedding date. I hated being so far away from my New Jersey family, but loved my new married life as the wife of a student and veteran who worked his butt off for us.

We were all too young to be having babies, but the women of the '50s had motherhood as a goal and why would I buck that trend? In April of 1962 I had my first child, Colleen, after 24 hours of labor with a husband who sat in the room studying for college exams. and a doctor who told me he'd be there when he finished his cocktail at the El Corral Steak House. The doctor was someone who believed in "anaesthesia" - so I was deprived of the full experience, and was out of it for days. I do remember thinking Colleen was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen . I also thought the same thing the next 5 times I gave birth.

Nothing - not lack of money, lack of genetic proof of "defects", not lack of optimism in the future stopped us from building and populating our nest. I hope our pair of mourning doves follows our example. They will not be sorry.

Thank you Colleen, Kevin, Jody, Terry, Kelly and Jacky. I am so glad I built my nests.

Enjoy your own. You've populated them with beautiful people. The future is looking good to me.