When I was younger I believed that I knew a secret. I looked at other people’s mothers and I thought, oh, she’s really nice, or she makes great cupcakes, or her house always smells like lemons–but inside I knew a very important secret. MY mother was a super hero and I felt sorry for other kids who didn’t have a super hero for a mother. She could do everything. And by everything I mean EVERYTHING. She took apart dryers, she built bikes, she cooked, she made clothes and cleaned clothes and could even make miniature clothes. She had the power of transformation–she transformed tables into castles and banks and secret fairy caves, she transformed boxes into rocket ships and secret command stations, she transformed closets into miniature kitchens, and living rooms into skating rinks. Her powers went even deeper, she transformed fear into giggles and pain into soothing relief, uncertainty into confidence and she could transform ANYTHING–books, puzzles, nursery rhymes, paper and crayons, moments under trees and in cars and walking to the store, trips to the library, trips to the Igloo for ice cream, weekends to Vermilion–all of it was transformed over and over and over again into expressions of love. There was never a single moment in my life that I didn’t feel loved, and for someone who has 6 brothers and sisters, THAT is an act of a mother who is a super hero. Oh, she’s not perfect, you might be thinking, and you are right. She DID sing Onward Christian Soldiers whenever we got into a disagreement. But she had a cover to maintain, all super heroes have to stay incognito.
Then I got older and I learned the truth…My mother was a super hero and I felt sorry for other people who didn’t have a super hero for a mother. There are few people who really know the pain, and exhaustion and unending difficulty of my entry into motherhood. I was so young and so afraid and so terribly exhausted all the time and I never would have survived without my mother and she had TODDLERS at the time. Every doctors appointment, every hospital stay, every CPR class, every terrifying moment she was there for me and my children. When I couldn’t be there for my daughter because I was in the hospital with my son, I never once had to worry because I knew she was safe and loved with my mother. She allowed me to be the best mother I could be under terrible circumstances and everything I know about being a mother, I learned from her. My mother is a super hero. I love you mom.
