Tender-Heart

I just talked to my mom on the phone today and she told me she bought a new car...a 2006 Red Toyota Corolla. I'm happy for her, she needed one. She's, one by one, given all her children vehicles to drive and left herself with my grandma's old busted up Chevy. (It still had the stuffed animals in the back window and throw pillows in the backseat which were all faded from the sunlight).

I find my mother completely unselfish. I was reading Vi's blog on how her mom had boughten a new pair of nice slippers and Vi ended up wearing them out of the house and to her apartment. Her mom ended up telling her that the slippers probably preferred Vi's house and that she could keep them. How is it that mom's are so unselfish, so giving????

It reminds me of all the times I went in my mom's closet and took her clothes or the time I took her brand new make-up bag for myself because I liked it so much (it said 'Mrs. Affleck' on the side of it, how could I not own it). She said nothing and gave it over so willingly. I've decided the love a mother has for a daughter, a child, is unsurpassed and quite unique in it's makeup.

Of course, my mom herself is quite unique, or so it would seem. My mom is not afraid to be herself, not afraid of what other people will say or think. She does what she thinks is right and stands up for what she believes in and I admire that about her. And for as strong as she is and as tough as she seems, she's really a tender-heart on the inside. One cold day, we were driving along and we saw some people on strike holding picket signs. They were walking around in a circle and you could see the little steam come from their mouths as they breathed out into the cold air. To my surprise, as we drove by, my mom honked the horn a couple of times for them! And the people gave her a shout and wave back. Frankly, I was a bit shocked! I was like, 'why in the world did you do that??!? She said she did it to make them feel good, to make them feel like they weren't out there in the cold for nothing. Most of us would pass those people by without much of a thought, certainly without a honk. (afterall, 'we don't support that stuff). But my mom, in that split-second of a moment, FELT for them and simply wanted to make them feel good. I loved her for that. Now, whenever I pass by some strikers, I give them a little honk just to make'em feel like someone cares (sinner that I am). Ya know, sometimes people wonder why I cry at movies so much; maybe it's empathy, and maybe I got it from my mom. Go figure.

And who knows, down the road if my mom keeps this unselfish thing up, I just might end up with the new Red Corolla.