Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving day, another day taking my dad to visit my mom. These trips are getting easier. He didn't even cry today and thanks to access-a-ride, he can spend the entire day here and get a ride home, saving us the trip.

Passover is the special holiday I remember with my mom. Thanksgiving was reserved for my mother-in-law. Every year, since 1985, the year my father-in-law died, we picked her up early and brought her to our house to spend the holiday. She was an eccentric character and I loved her both in spite of and because of her eccentricities. (I won't say what her worst one was except that I could never take her shopping.)

Every year, she would join me and my children as we hiked through Alley Pond Park, enjoying all the beauty nature has to offer this time of year in our own back yard. She loved watching the kids jump in the leaves and run up and down the ramp underneath the highway. All the while, her son, would sit at home and watch his football games in peace.

After our walk (and some cooking) we always took my daughter to a movie. It was a great girls' only bonding day. My kids always say that I was more like her than I was like my own mother. Maybe that is what attracted my husband to me in the first place.

Until today, I forgot how much I enjoyed spending the holidays with her. I think it must have been the fallen red leaves on my mom's grave that reminded me of how much I loved my other mom.