Happy Mother's Day

My mom, the eldest of four sisters...

Mom in the middle of work friends always trying to make it fun.

My mom would have been Vivi in the Ya Ya sisterhood....spunky and imaginative

Mom had two families

Her first daughter was mentally handicapped or challenged.  In those days they used the term retarded for children like my sister.

Mom was part of the crew that started the first day camp for handicapped children in NJ.

  Mom coined the name Camp Star (which she said was Rats backwards as in Oh Rats!

Oh Mom, you could weave quite a tale and would often embellish the truth.  We grew up thinking Elvis Presley was a Lithuanian like my mother and that his real name was Elvis Preslauskas.  My brother and I adamantly re-told this tale to everyone at school.

 
Mom loved cigarette pants and wore them her whole life

 Quite the Gamine

Always stylish and always changing her hair color or grabbing the scissors and chopping it off!

 I love these old wispy pictures...

What is it that makes a memory...

Snippets of the past, pieces of you that pass down to me...

 revealed in a glimpse, a smile or mannerism in me and my own children.

 ME in my way cool hat and my brother right in front.

 

Mom and Dad (woah look at that shirt Dad!)  

Mom, the original Demi, married my Dad 10 years her junior.  I'm sure that caused quite a stir! Sadly it did not last...

 Mom and me with my Italian grandparents.  Always horsing around. 

Thanks Mom for teaching me how to do things!

We would knock down walls, build patios, plant gardens, and dance in circles...

 I so vividly remember driving around in your bright yellow volkswagon bug convertible, sunflower on the antenna, on some great adventure!

Epilogue

My mom lived to the ripe old age of 91.  I was fortunate to have been her caregiver during the last year and a half of her life.  We would sit in the sun in her treehouse by the river faces tilted up to the sky and clouds.  Mom wove her tales right to the end.   She had a favorite cloud that she said would come visit her and rest on her rooftop.   

Mom loved her baby sister Adele and left the most loving message on her answering machine just before she died.  She told her sister how much love she had for her and how beautiful she had been to her during her life.  It gives me great comfort to listen to that recording and makes me remember all of the wonderful pieces of you Mom..

Here we are that last summer in Adele's garden.  

Hmmmm, looks like the apple didn't fall too far from the tree.
What AM I doing with that zucchini!