Happy Mother's Day

Obviously the day means something different to me, since I have been sans a mother for over 3 years.
The memories I have of that person are few and far between, though most are good.
I have never had any regrets about my upbringing and consider myself very fortunate to have had the wonderful family that helped make me who I am.

Since an early time I made all of my Mother's Day crafts with the rest of the children, with no intension of ever giving them to my mother. Instead I would run home from the bus stop and proudly present my latest creation to the person who really deserved them, my dad. I am sure somewhere in a dusty photo album, you could find many cards with small hands, covered in paint, pressed into paper. Double the work, double the cards.

So today I made the annual call to dad to wish him a happy day...
I always enjoy our conversations... In an interesting twist for the day, we ended up talking about his mother and grandmother. Clare Olive Gardner I believe is her name, and I will add it later, since I already forgot grandma's. (we were close, ha)
Dad sent me a photo of the two of them, it was taken in the 20's and is probably the oldest item in my possession. I found it rather interesting to hear about our extended family whom I had never met. Clare was born in 1898, and Dr. Gardner, as he was referred to, was born ten years prior in 1888. It was always a fun fact that my grand parents were born in the 1800's and that my father's grandmother was around when Lincoln was president. His grandmother was first generation from Ireland, and is well known for her antics on the boat ride over... Introducing the now well know universal truth, that you should never put a 14 year old girl on a boat alone...

So I was joking with dad that we really aren't very established as far as our place on the continent, really we have only been here for around 3-4 generations. He mentioned that the INS might show up any minute to deport us.

I wanted to share the photo that dad sent from the 20's. His mother is about 27, next to her mother and two children. I promised I would scan it, but am still waiting for my baby to come back from the shop.
So here is the best I could do.