Mothering Without my Mother

A few days ago, I was at the playground with my children, surrounded by three lovely grandmothers who were out with their grandchildren. My 5-year-old was on the swings. I was coaching my 2-year-old up a ladder, when suddenly I saw all of the grandmothers lunge and gasp in one direction: toward the swings. I turned around just in time to see my son stand up, dust himself off, and say “I’m okay, Mom.” And all I could think in that moment was how happy my late mother would be if she could be here to have a mild panic attack watching her daring grandson fling himself off the swings.

Today is the third anniversary of my mother’s death. April 6, at 5:56 a.m. I can’t remember the exact time that each of my children were born, because I was too enamored with my new baby in my arms to hear a stranger tell me what time it was, but I will never forget the moment when one of my mother’s best friends announced her time of death right after we watched her take her last breath.

I gave my mother her very first (and dare I say, favorite) grandchild four years before she died. My daughter, Madeline, changed my mother’s life. She had spent her entire life searching for happiness and struggling to meet unrealistic expectations, some that were self-inflicted, and some that others had scarred her with. She just wanted to be good enough, and never felt like she was. But when she became “Grandma,” she was perfect. In my daughter’s eyes, Grandma could do no wrong. And that was all that mattered to her.

All of the sudden, her once heavy-hearted spirit was light and laughing, and her sad and worried eyes were twinkling and dancing. She had finally found the person who had no expectations of her, the person who would never find fault in her, the person she made blissfully happy without even trying. My mother was the ultimate grandmother. In fact, “grand” was an understatement.

One of the hardest things about watching someone slip away slowly over months and months, is watching so many other things slowly slip away with them. For me, it was “Grandma.” I thought I might be okay without “Mom” (and maybe someday I will), but I was not ready to lose Grandma, and I certainly was not prepared for my daughter to lose her very first best friend. One day, I sat at her bedside in the hospital showing her pictures from our family vacation and she asked me who the pretty little girl was. It was her beloved granddaughter. I was crushed. Grandma was gone. Her brain tumor had erased her grandchildren.

I have four children now, two of whom my mother never met. I told her about No. 3 as she laid on her death bed, right after we were told she wouldn’t make it through the night. I’ll never know if she heard me, but she did make it through that night. And my youngest daughter, little Ginger, is my mother’s namesake. She is so glowingly happy to be alive and here with us that I am convinced she is the keeper of her grandmother’s soul.

There are still the occasional days when I need my mother. But there is not a single day that goes by when I don’t desperately need my children’s grandmother.

A grandmother’s love is magical and enchanting. It is filled with ice cream and candy and laughter and song. Grandma’s house is where our children go to escape from the word “no.” Grandma’s house is where the world revolves around little people. Grandma’s house is where a 2-year-old gets to be in charge.

Grandma was my saving grace. She would eagerly babysit her grandchildren, and pretend that she was doing me a favor, when we both know she considered it a gift. Grandma loved my children as much as I do (maybe more, if that’s even possible.) Grandma was the one to listen to me whine about how my children drove me crazy and laugh in my face because I had it coming. Pay-back is a … grandchild.

It seems to me that while our children take ten years off our lives with worry and aggravation, grandchildren give them back with joy and celebration. I am so very thankful that I was able to make my mother a grandmother before she died. I owed it to her. And while I didn’t think it was possible, I think it helped me redeem myself after my rocky teen years. But now that she’s gone, I can’t help feeling like we have all been cheated.

Living without my mother is hard. Mothering without her is heartwrenching.