Mother’s Day 2022:

I LOVE this holiday! Actually, I love any holiday. Time spent with my family is what brings me the most joy! There’s something that happens to you when your 5 year old granddaughter smiles with three missing front teeth or hugs you like there’s no tomorrow.

I’ve maintained since 20 Sept 2016 that nothing in the world prepares you for the first time your son or daughter place their newborn child in your arms. You want to promise them the world. My favorite photo of all time is one my husband, aka “Pop”, took of my granddaughter. “C” was about twelve hours old and I was holding her in the palm of my hands, just talking to her, telling her the world was hers and how special and loved she was - you know, the usual grandma stuff. The astonishing thing to me is she was looking straight up at me while I was talking, seemingly absorbing every single word I was saying! To this day, that child has me wrapped around her finger (and she knows it!) but to say she’s changed my life would be an understatement.

Once my son told his aunts he and his wife were expecting, one of my sisters asked me what kind of a grandmother I was going to be. I quickly responded that I was going to be a Hilda - my dad’s mother. I’ve always told my husband that “C” is an old soul. Since she first began talking, her vocabulary has reminded me of my grandmother, Hilda…the words she chooses to use or how she says something, her mannerisms, etc. I swear there are times when I can see Hilda’s famous twinkle in her eyes or she gets the grin! I miss my grandmother dearly and cannot she’s been gone nearly 20 years but somehow, “C” keeps her present for me.

I look forward to the day when “C’s” old enough to understand what her family history represents. I want to share with her all of the old family stories I heard growing up…all about the life her great-grandmother had on the family farm with her sisters. I want to tell her all the stories I heard from my paternal grandmother about her family’s travels up and down the Eastern seaboard, about the trip from Jacksonville, FL to upstate NY in 1924 where the family had three tire blowouts and by the time the entire family was sick by the time they arrived, about “C’s” fifth great-grandfather being held prisoner by Union forces during the Civil War - the same story my grandmother shared with my son! I have so much to share with her and tell her all about Hilda. I’m convinced Hilda’s living on in “C”, which brings me nothing but peace and joy!