We asked several Hyde Park area moms to tell us what about Mother’s Day is special to them. They shared their thoughts, and we get inspired!
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| Janet Buening |
Janet Buening
My three children are adults, ranging in age from 36 - 40. Two local, one in NYC. No grandchildren.
We never do much on Mother's Day - I am annoyed that all the restaurants raise brunch prices for our "special day" plus we don't like the crowds. Now that the kids are adults, we tend to have a meal at one of our homes, most often mine.
One tradition we do have is that my in-town daughter and I go out together to all the greenhouses and garden centers the day before (Saturday) to get our new bedding plants, veggies and herbs for the season. The kids often just get me a gift certificate for that, or money.
A Mother’s Day memory that makes me both smile and get teary-eyed —
My husband and I were visiting our daughter in New York City, a year or two after she had moved there after college. It was a lovely spring morning, with just a bit of chill in the air. On our way to Central Park we went to Mass together at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament on W. 71st Street. The second scripture reading that Sunday was from Revelation, verses I had read at my mother's funeral: “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, no crying nor pain…”
But of course there was crying - my daughter and I immediately recognized these words and were moved to tears. I looked down to get tissues out of my pocket, and realized the funky jacket I happened to be wearing that day was the exact shade of aqua my mother had painted our tiny little kitchen in the early ‘60s (after tiring of the high-gloss fire-engine red she had painted it when we moved there, in 1953) - and the patch pockets looked a lot like the curtains she had made and hung on the back door window. Sitting in a strange church, in a city I had never expected to spend much time in, listening to the familiar “every tear will be wiped away” and crying companionably with my daughter, I realized I was basically wearing the kitchen of my childhood. Memories of warmth, good food, Mom’s cookies flooded back. I felt like Mom was hugging me again.
Maybe, subliminally, that is what attracted me to this jacket when I saw it at a vendor booth at the Cincinnati Flower Show? And why my younger sister had bought the same jacket at the show - something I did not know until she saw my photos from this trip. The colors of Mom’s dramatic personality and abiding love.
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| Mary Foss Brinkmeyer with husband Joe |
Mary Foss Brinkmeyer
I love Mother's Day!!!!!
Joe and I have two children, Lauren, age 40, and Joe III, age 37.
Our family has always considered Mother's Day such a very special holiday. Each year we celebrate the day by giving mom a "day off" to do whatever she wants throughout the day - it is the best!!!!!
But most importantly, I so enjoy Mother's Day because I always reflect on the wonderful influence my mom, Amelia Hamberg Foss, was and continues to be on me. I appreciate her life lessons and constantly learn from them, including,
- Smile
- Going Out...Dress It Up
- Take the High Road
- Be Kind to Others
I am blessed to have had such an awesome mother.
My daughter, Lauren, and daughter-in-law, Dana, are fantastic mothers to our four grandchildren: Deirdre (8) and Bradley (5) - Dana and Joe Brinkmeyer's children Elise (7) and Patrick (5) - Lauren and Wes Goebel's children
One of my favorite songs by Luke Bryan is "Most People Are Good." The lyrics of this song, "I BELIEVE most mom's qualify for sainthood" are so TRUE. This is especially true of the moms of the men and women serving in the military, as I was one.
I am so proud and thankful to enjoy my role as "Mimi" to our super fun grandchildren. Every day with them is a special day. I love it when they wear the T-shirts I gave them saying, "I rather be hangn' with my Mimi."
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| Julie Hefele |
Julie Hefele
Tom and I have two children, ages 27 and 26
When my kids were young we would go to Mass and then out for breakfast. But before Mother’s Day I would go flower shopping for my garden and the kids would usually give me some beautiful tree/bush that Tom would plant for me in the afternoon. I would spend the afternoon planting many of the flowers, sometimes with their help. I loved having the time in my garden!!
As they have gotten older I still often get a beautiful tree or bush but now it’s often [son] Brian doing the planting!!
But some of my truly favorite Mother’s Days were the last few we had with my mom, Jeanne Robson. She was known in Mt. Lookout for her beautiful gardens. And when they downsized to a condo, her gardens did not!
But as she got older she was unable to do the planting herself. So my sisters (Maura Robson and Tracey Sandman) and I would go out and buy her flowers before Mother’s Day. Then that weekend we would go to Mom and Dad’s condo to plant them.
We would first have to clean out the beds from the previous summer. Mom would sit in her chair and direct, making sure we didn’t pull out some one-of-a-kind perennial! Maura was always the lucky one who got to clean out this huge perennial garden that was so overgrown it had as many weeds as flowers.
Dad would be busy filling the wheel barrow with the yard waste and dumping it in the back woods. Sometimes, some of the grandkids would be there to help him! Mom would fix lunch, and then we would spend the afternoon planting all the flowers we had bought. Dad would spend the rest of the summer making sure everything was watered so Mom could enjoy them all summer long.
After Mom died, we continued this tradition for several years. Dad loved having the gardens Mom had started.
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