It’s funny how our roles have reversed.
I worry about making her meals and making sure she eats.
I help her dress.
I take her places.
Yesterday we spent hours at Armstrong’s Nursery. (I think I inherited my love for gardening from her.)
We walk and examine every beautiful bloom. We are admiring the pictures of the bulbs and deciding together what we will plant now for our spring gardens.
We laugh. A lot. I say, "Mira que yo te quiero." ("I love you so much.")
She stops in surprise and ponders my spontaneous declaration of affection.
"You’ve always been like that. Always so affectionate. Your children say it easily too. I’m sorry," she continues, "that I never said it to my own mother."
I am surprised by this intimate disclosure.
"No se usaba entonces." ("It wasn’t in style back then.")
We pay for our potting soil and bulbs and load up the minivan.
I help her get in. "Te quiero." She says it awkwardly, self-consciously.
"Te quiero mas."
I love you more.
Amazing…. Beautiful….
your post warmed my heart…I pray I will live a life that is deserving of such honor from my children.
oh marti. you are wonderful.and what IS important right now is you both look BEAUTIFUL in this pic.
Marti that was so beautifully expressed. I can’t imagine the blessing of a daughter like you. If my sons grow up to be half as good to me as you are to your mother, I will have been blessed beyond measure.And yes, you look so joyful and pretty in this picture. Your children are very lucky to see what love really is; how one cares for another.
N
Papi said to me all the time. I don’t think I ever remember Mami saying it to me or me to her.