Mom Turns 80!!!

My mother celebrates her 80th birthday today. She is still spry, and looks much younger than 80. She stays active and busy. This morning she told me that she had already been up and down the stairs a few times doing her laundry. She’ll be here to visit us next week, and if she sees anything in my house that needs attention, she will try and do it. If you blink, she might sneak off to the kitchen and wash dishes, or clean bathrooms, or iron clothes. She always wants to help...and to serve. She has a servant’s heart, and is blessed with the gifts of helping and hospitality. Over the course of my life, she opened her home to just about all of her eight siblings and spouses, to help them when they were down. She truly epitomizes the Mexican ideals of having a close-knit family. She is the oldest daughter of Fernando and Otilia Cruz. Having only one older brother, Joe, she has been the big sister to six other girls and one boy. She was probably a great help to my grandma, because she loves to cook and clean. We used to joke about the extremes of her housekeeping. She would vacuum the house every day, and the front room was definitely off limits, except when we might have company. I suppose I should be thankful that we never went to the extreme of having plastic runners throughout the house. Maybe that was just an Italian thing (only going by a couple of examples from my childhood). She also ironed everything. Nothing more comforting that having underwear with no wrinkles, or socks with creases to match your pants. She claims that she doesn’t iron socks, but I know she did.


She recently lost her younger sister, Fina, and that has been hard for her. Thanks to Bell (or Marconi), mom would talk to Fina every day. There is a big hole now, where that time was taken up daily with general chit chat and gossip. Our oldest daughter has a similar routine with my wife. I only talk to my mom once a week, usually on Sunday after church. I’m a guy, so there isn’t enough to talk about to make it a daily ritual. My mom’s older brother died a while back, and he probably talked to his mom weekly as well.

We are excited to see my mom next week. Our girls will be here, and even my brother is flying into town with his girlfriend. He is taking us all out to McCrady’s for a belated birthday dinner. The chef at McCrady’s just received the James Beard Foundation Award for “Best Chef in the Southeast.” I’m sure it will be yummy!

I’ve also been learning Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young” on my guitar, to play as a birthday song. That will be a little outside my comfort zone, but I’m sure she’ll appreciate it. All those years that her and dad paid for my lessons is finally paying off. Thanks for everything mom.

So, happy birthday and see you soon!