Especially today. Her birthday. Every two days after Christmas we would always rally. It was a way of making the holiday celebration period even longer. More joy — when Mom was around.

Comfort Food

She would have been 50 today, a birthday milestone. And whether it’s a big birthday or not, I always imagine the memories we would’ve packed in — if she were still around. One of my best is our flower planting contest. I think I was about four.  I definitely remember going to the nursery and buying my own gardening gloves with yellow flowers printed on them and picking out a bright yellow watering can and a rake that was just my size.

At home, my mom pulled out two seed packets and said we would have a contest to see whose flowers grew tallest. She told me to pick the packet I wanted, a yellow one, or a purple one.  Both were pretty, but I was in yellow mode. So we raked the yard, planted our seeds side by side, and watered them every day.

Mom’s purple pansies were pretty, but they grew low, flat, close to the ground.

But my yellow flowers grew and grew and grew —

TALLER and

TALLER and

TALLER!

I won the tall contest! Apparently Mom had let me choose sunflowers that first day in the dirt, weeks earlier.

sunflowers watch over me

• Still, everyday she was around was a winning day for me.

Happy Half-Century Mom. <3

One response to “Sunflowers = Mom”