MY MOTHER THE GODDESS...

Mom in the middle


While recently creating my Facebook Wall, and re-connecting with old friends from grammar and high-school, and even my sister’s still cool, ex-boyfriends, I have been bombarded with the same question… “How is your mother?” I never realized how much everyone admired her.

She has always lived the high-life on low income. She may have raised us in a tough working-class city, but we lived as if docked on a yacht in the South of France. At times there may have been motorcycles gangs congregating outside our front door, yet inside there was a European flair. She sat us girls down to a candlelight dinner every night at eight. In a Hamburger Helper neighborhood, we dined on fillet mignon. While the other mothers were playing cards, and reading those outrageous tabloids, the ones that printed things like The President is an Alien, my mother listened to Middle Eastern music and read books with titles like A Salute to Cheese.


When I was a baby, she was a belly dancer. Looking back at pictures, I see she possessed the look of a movie star, goddess, and enchantress. As a young girl, I remember always being in awe of her beauty. She had long black hair. She painted her eyes in a Cleopatra style, and traveled several nights a week to premier Boston nightclubs carrying her round, white, satin-lined suitcase. She would draw you in with the scent of her rare elixir of amber and sandalwood. Everything about her was unique and exotic. But, what I remember most was, she did it all for her girls. I have four sisters, and even though we essentially had very little money, my mother made sure we ate well (even if it meant she had to make friends with the butcher). She signed us up for dance classes with the money she made as a dancer, and we may have resided in an apartment, but she made sure it was spacious, and across the street from the unlimited benefits of a well-stocked library. She took various jobs, from booking talent, interior designer, floral arranger, to a sought-after psychic, in order to give us what she believed we needed. To this day I genuflect before her for that. I literally would be nothing without her.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there… there is no one I can praise more than you! And for those of us who have not had that privilege of being a parent, I am sure there is someone you care for, and nurture deeply, like I do with Aunty. Happy Mother’s Day to you too…Most women are mothers in one way or another. This weekend is for you…

AGELESS TIP OF THE WEEK: HONOR YOUR MOTHER