The Long Distance Mother

If there’s a crown for the Queen of Ironies, that would be me, Sarah Ryan Laney, hands down.

Here I am without a child to my name – or spouse either, for that matter – and a mother who might as well have been a stray cat she spent so little time at home, and I’m celebrating Mother’s Day as if I expect any minute to have loving family pop in and shower me with gifts. Yesterday I baked carrot cake in individual heart-shaped muffin tines. Hope disguised as calories.

Before I went to church this morning I left a chicken in the crock pot. When I got back I made a salad, and now I’m sitting at my dining room table eating lunch from my good dishes, which I reserve for special occasions.

In honor of this day I’m playing my favorite song – “Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton. You might think that’s a poor choice for Mother’s Day, but the song is actually about people who love each other, no matter what.

I’d like to think that describes my relationship with my Mother, but Pearl Harbor is more like it. Just let me get my leaky boat afloat and Rosalind Ryan launches a stealth attack to blow me out of the water.

Still, every second Sunday in May I get out my good china, put on “Wonderful Tonight” and just keep on hoping.