Skip to main content

The Party of a Lifetime

Last September I went to the party of a lifetime.  No, I'm not exaggerating.
On Sunday, September 16th, 2012, my daughter got married and I had my moment as Mother of the Bride. It was truly a day like no other: exhilarating, sacred, and a bit overwhelming.

Weddings can be complicated events. While meant to be a celebration of love and commitment, shared with family and friends, they can sometimes feel like a list of things to be done. And more than just a mere list, but rather a triathlon, a quest, and an exhibition of skill. So many things which must be done right. So many ways to try to be perfect while others are watching.

Well, this moment, right here, is the one that matters most to me. Our wonderful photographer, Kathy Shilling, made sure that this moment happened and was captured--for us.  



A moment, before the mirror, of reflection and love. In that image she caught a relationship: two feisty women who had to grow up together, making their own way. 

I share this moment with you because I'm looking ahead to another party of a lifetime. Okay, maybe I'm wandering into a bit of hyperbole this time. I'm referring to the upcoming hocoblogs party at Union Jack's, on Tuesday, February 26th. Sponsored by Bill Woodock of The 53 and Claire McGill of UK Desperate Housewife, it will offer hocolocal bloggers and their readers a chance to meet, mingle, and hang out for a few hours.

This party has special meaning for me. I'll be coming with the author of HoCoHouseHon. You see the two of us pictured above. We are, to my knowledge, the only mother/daughter bloggers in the hoco. No, we don't wear matching dresses or anything like that. 

We're two feisty women, making our own way.

I have heard some women express the view that their daughter's wedding day was the zenith of their relationship, the high point of motherhood.  Not so for me.What makes me happiest is seeing my daughter grow as a writer, a talent she showed from very early in her life. While she had the gift, she didn't often believe in herself. It's hard to be a parent when you see your child's strengths so clearly while she herself is unsure.

I've loved writing my entire life. My mother shared a love of words with me. I passed it on.  Many's the bedtime that got put off to look up interesting words in the dictionary. I've been blogging since 2011 and recently started a Facebook page for the blog. Alice started her own blog in 2011 and then life and work intervened. Until now.

2012 marked her return to writing and her commitment to life as a writer. Her blog provides me a certain exquisite discomfort as I read pieces that are so much better than anything I could write. Isn't that what we should want? We raise our children to be able to try their wings, to fly out on their own: beautiful, capable, strong.

I hope I'll see you at the party on the 26th. It should be easy to find us--look for the two feisty women.
 
 

hocoblogs@@@

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

  A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word.  Days passed.  They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts.  Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public.  So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that.  But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...
2 comments
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more