This captures my mom’s sense of humor pretty well. At Thanksgiving a few years ago, I just said “smile”, and this is what I got.

I feel sorry for anybody whose mom isn’t as cool as my mom, and I’m sorry to say that this would include most of you. My mom was born a couple of years before the crash of ’29. She jokes on occasion that she might have somehow had something to do with it. She married at 17, converted to Catholicism for my dad, and staying true to her faith and husband, started churning out babies on an annual basis, until she reached the magic number ten, in the form of yours truly. This alone, in my opinion, qualifies one for sainthood. On top of the clearly staggering task of rearing ten kids, she’s endured some other difficulties; she lost her eldest son when he was twenty-two, worked part-time way before that was common, and put her cosmopolitan, arty side second to motherhood for about thirty years. I’m glad to say that when she was in her late forties, she started her second life, going to college and enjoying the things she had denied herself for so many years, which mostly involved collecting art, rare books and manuscripts, and catching up on all the music she didn’t have time to kick back and enjoy while being a working mom. She’s now 82, and in spite of being in constant discomfort due to a couple of health issues, remains on a daily basis one of the most positive people I know. I call her every day just ’cause she’s such a hoot. I wish the whole world could sit down for lunch with her, I think everyone would benefit. Here’s to my mom, and moms everywhere! Thanks for your amazing gift of life!