Mother's Day is coming, and I have never had this particular dilemma before. Not that Mother's Day is a dilemma in itself, but I've always been near my mom when this day arrived in the past.Our tradition, as with many holidays, started with church in the morning. The pastor would hand out Mother's Day flower bouquets to the oldest mother in the room, then to the mother with the most children, then to the mother with the youngest child. My mom would never win any of those bouquets because, while she is anything but ordinary, she is neither very old nor very young, and she birthed only my brother and me. Next, we would go out to lunch at a restaurant of Mom's choosing (usually Red Lobster). It was here at the restaurant that my brother would finally show up, having slept through church, and run in out of breath and unwashed with last-minute grocery store Mother's Day flower bouquet in hand. It's not that she didn't know right away that he had picked those up on his way to meet us for lunch, but she never seemed to care, probably because she was just glad that he was there with her on her day.
This year, for the first time in my life, I'm in Los Angeles, Calif., and Mom is in Melbourne, Fla. I will not be there for church with the family or lunch at a cheesy seafood chain, and I won't get to see my sweaty brother offering wilted flowers. But that's OK, because I think I'll start a new tradition. It will go like this: Mom will call me at 11 a.m. her time (8 a.m. my time) to tell me that the most beautiful flowers just came to the house from 1-800 Flowers. She will tell me that she wishes I could be there. Then we'll get off the phone on our respective sides of the country. She will put water in the vase and set the flowers on the counter in the kitchen, and whenever she walks by those flowers she'll remember that her daughter is forever thankful for her no matter how far away she is.
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