Dear Readers,

Today is not a post about science, psychology, or medicine.  I’m writing about something a little closer to home.

This Sunday (at least here in the U.S.) we’ll be celebrating Mother’s Day.  For some it’s brunch with mum.  For others, a bouquet of flowers and a card delivered to a special lady.

I lost my mom eight years ago and so for me, it is this right here.

Thank you Mom because what you did in the short, less than fifteen years of my life that I had you there for, gave me everything I needed to be able to be ok even without you.  You laid the foundation, and come on, let’s be honest, Dad put up the walls.  (We’ll save that post for Father’s Day!)

I’m not going to go into the science of “a mother’s love” and how a woman’s relationship with her mum can shape her for the rest of her life.

Do you remember this?

I’m going to tell you about how resourceful I became, thanks to my mom being able to make anything out of anything.  I’m going to talk about her uncanny ability to remember the drug interactions of every possible pharmaceutical combination, and how that’s probably where I got my unnaturally sharp memory (for random facts) from.  Her thick (auburn, at the time) hair: I knew there was somewhere I got my hair monster from.  I’m going to talk about her hospitality, her natural abilities to make anywhere a home. To say thank you MOM, for reminding us that dinner is served as a family, teenage girls don’t bare their bellies, and piercings are for ears, only.  That love means saying sorry, and not always with your words.  That you can be a lady and still sometimes slip up and say f***. That the best way to win over anyone is with a genuine smile, that crinkles your eyes.

I never used to let myself get this sad but someone suggested I should just go with it when it happens.  Turns out I ended up smiling and laughing mid-tears.  And I’m going to admit the completely cheesy thing that got me here: this week’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy.  The writers hit it dead-on — when you lose a parent, you think you could have done more.

But the truth is, you couldn’t have.  The only thing you can do, the only thing that is in your power is to do more now.