Mother's Day

Dear Mom, thanks for passing down your joy of reading, your inability to hold more than three sips of beer, and your pretty legs. Thanks for all the hugs and the teary talks. Thanks for sneaking into my apartment and doing my laundry yesterday. Thanks for loving me unconditionally and being the one who, our whole lives, did all the behind-the-scenes dirty work, uncomplaining and unrecognized.   Thanks for being so tidy that it offset Dad's slob genes and we girls turned out somewhere in the middle.  Thanks for your weird meals that you apologized for before we even tasted them.  Thanks for holding us close when we were sick and teaching us that kindness matters most of all in life.  Thank you for encouraging us to write and draw and dance and sing and create and for letting us have swings in the house when we were little.  Thanks for taking in your adult daughter and getting her through the roughest time of her life, even when I don't thank you nearly enough for what you do. Thank you for helping me raise my kids and loving them just as much as you loved us. Thanks for calling me your "Emmalou" and "Piglet" and "Butchina" and for being the best mom on earth.  I love you more than I can say.  -Emily