Today is Mother's Day, which I was going to pretend to have forgotten until last night. When I showed up to babysit my baby her father said "Can you tell Camille who we're seeing tomorrow? That's right- we're seeing EVERYBODY! Papa and Nana, Grandma and Grandpa, both your aunt Jennys, and of course your own Mama" and I was thinking, "hm, why dat" and then he said "for Mother's Day!"
Of course. To some people, it's a real big deal.
So I was thinking about it in the library, whether to send off a "Happy Mother's Day!" email, and started thinking about my dad's mother, who raised Paulina and me until my parents bought their own house (when I was about 5? 6?). And I wrote her an email that sort of scraped the surface, but didn't do any justice to the emotions I hope to someday express to her.
Everything that I am, it is because of her. All of my thrifty, hard-working, patient, and assertive qualities come from her. She taught me how to knit, how to pick berries, how to appreciate birds and wild flora, how to reuse reuse reuse and recycle, how to get what I want (how to not beat around the bush), how to use a hammer/iron/gardening-shears/KNIFE, how to break into houses, and how to steam open envelopes so you can be a sneak. I love her more than anyone could know and I am so grateful that I had such a gorgeous, strong, tough woman in my life. If I grow up to be exactly like her, even with her negative qualities, boy would I be happy.
PS I'm on my own computer at school, so I only have the few photos saved here to choose from. I'll probably upload more later, because I know you are just DYING to see more pictures of my Gma Joan, Karen.

-Camille