Happy Birthday, Mom!

A re-post from 2013, from my old site.

<Originally posted here Feb. 23/13. There were several internal links in the post, but due to a later blog migration, they’re duds now. The link about courage is current.>

Happy Birthday, Mom!

My Mom would be 93 today if she was still alive. Happy birthday, Mom!!

I was with her when she drew her last breath

That’s when I learned that to be present at a person’s death is an honour

A gift.

So glad I was able to be there

So glad Mom was my Mom!

She had a lot of problems.

A lot of challenges in her life

She went down some pretty hard roads

(My father was a very hard road to go down

Ask anyone who went down that road.)

But Mom was feisty

She was strong

She refused to be bullied

Or, well, she tolerated it for a while (a long-ish while, to be fair)

Then one day, she’d had enough

She was a good role model for me

She wasn’t perfect

She made her fair share of mistakes

(can't think of anyone who hasn’t)

But I am thankful she was my Mom

***

On one of the anniversaries of her birth, I found myself in court

Ironic how one’s life can take so many twists & turns, hmmm?

How someone who used to help “enforce” the law

Would later see the need to resist it.

To challenge “the powers that be.”

My “disobedience” is always very “civil”

Violence could never be my way

I use my voice

My words

Sometimes, my body

Sitting somewhere, somewhere I am not wanted

Just sittin.’

Sitting in “protest”

I’m not ashamed

Not ashamed at all!

But proud

I’ve sat in some fine spots, with some very fine people, waiting to get arrested.

It’s a lot more fun than you might suppose!

On Mom’s birthday, I pause

I know she’d be proud of me too

Sometimes we really must have the courage to say to the bullies

Stop. You have to stop this now.

It has to stop.

That’s enough.

Janet

‘Quote of the day’ with this post: “May the world’s feast be made safe for women and children. May mothers’ milk run clean again. May denial give way to courageous action. May I always have faith.” – Dr. Sandra Steingraber, author, poet, ecologist, mother, cancer survivor, activist

******

p.s. as I post this on S-stack in February 2024: the court thing I mention in the posting above refers to a climate-related arrest from 2009, when 6 colleagues & I chained ourselves to one another & “occupied” the then-federal (Canadian) finance minister’s office. The bit about having once helped enforce the law refers to the fact that as a young woman I spent four years working as a federal parole officer. This was a lifetime ago now, but I still chuckle at the irony that former parole officer Janet wound up on probation many-many moons (decades) later.

p.p.s. I mention that I was at my Mom’s bedside when she died. I wrote once about how it is an honour to be present at a dying person’s side. That posting is called ‘Near Death Experience.’

p.p.p.s. finally, another posting I wrote that honoured my Mom is called ‘My First Feminist.’