Close to Nowhere

As we’ve been warned for several weeks now, I hope that everyone knows Mother’s Day is Sunday.

I had many “mothers” to remember on Mother’s Day at one time in my life — my mother-in-law Jimmie, Pop’s grandmother and several of his aunts. Fortunately for me, I loved them and they loved me, so it was an easy, enjoyable day. And for a while, I had my own mother.

I lost my mama when I was 25; brother Dennis was 22 and baby brother Danny was 14. Our older sister Peggy was 33.

Peggy was married and had a family, I was married and had a family, Dennis was in the U.S. Navy, out to sea on a destroyer. Danny was the only one left at home, with a much older father.

Within a few months, Daddy realized that his health wasn’t up to an athletically-inclined teenage boy.

Pop and I had two small children, Dana was 6 and Kris was 4. Kris was also physically handicapped. So we did what any sister would do and Danny came to live with us.

A traumatized teenage boy is not easy to live with, but it worked out well. After a while Pop forgot that Danny wasn’t his son and introduced him as “my oldest boy.” I got a lot of funny looks.

All this wandering all over the place leads up to one thing. It’s been 40 years since my mother passed away. I’ve gotten old and am a great-grandmother even.

And I still miss my mother. There’s some poem that goes around Facebook this time each year about how you need to love your mother, because you’ll never get another.

I always think about my mother when I’m sewing, especially — she was an incredible seamstress. I made daughter Dana’s wedding dress, when I made our granddaughters’ christening gown, when I made my granddaughter’s wedding dress and then a christening suit for a boy, because he couldn’t wear a dress! (I reminded them all that Prince William wore a dress to his christening, but it didn’t work. Shephard had to have a “boy” outfit.)

Now, I’m looking and thinking about making granddaughter Remy’s wedding dress — she and Mitch will be married this fall.

I may be more excited about the fact that Ruby June, Shepard’s little sister, who is due in August, will wear her mother’s christening gown.

I have the dress out, touching the lace and feeling the fabric and most of the time I wish my mother could see the dress and the babies.