quality care aka my 500th post!

Mom, originally uploaded by jill y.

Nobody really looks like this in person, I'm guessing. I mean, I wasn't there when this was taken and I wasn't even born then, but I can't imagine this is how my mother looked in real life. It's kind of surreal how narrow her shoulders are and how she doesn't really seem to have any arms. Really, I think she looks like a mannequin from a Sears catalogue circa 1967, modeling the latest designer nurse fashions.

Ha ha. Sorry Mom, I know you'll read this.

Ok. On to more serious matters. As the ongoing ode to my mother in honor of her birthday last week, I'd like to publicly mention that my mother has her RN, BSc and MA and graduated from the University of Alberta with distinction. That means she is really really good and really really smart. And she did this while raising me and my sister and possibly my father as well (I can say that because my father doesn't read my blog.) AND she was working full time. Yes, I meant it when I said she is really really good and really really smart.

One fond memory is that my mother, who despite ALL the things she had going on, would take me and my sister (we were probably 4 & 7 years old) to Hub Mall for cheesey hot dogs after torturing us with sitting quietly at one of the University library's (she was studying for her BSc at the time). I remember all the colored shuttered doors of all the apartment windows that lined the 'mall' on both sides, and getting that cheese dog with relish. I remember her in her 70's leather trench coat with fur colar bending down to hand me the cheese dog and it was all that mattered to me. But now I know that what mattered to my mom was making sure her daughters had dinner and were happy and that she got her photocopying done.

Thank you mom. For the lifelong years of patience, making sure I was fed and happy and never letting those things keep you from doing the things that were important to you. You're the best mom to me for it.

Lots of love, Jill