A Year of Kaddish

Today would have been my mother’s birthday. She would have been 88. I’ve written a few checks today and besides having to remember to write 2010, the date rang with a certain familiarity every time I wrote it or looked at a calendar. Funny how the mind works. It knew that I no longer had to make a phone call to wish her a happy birthday.

It also knew that I didn’t need to be reminded weeks earlier to buy and then mail a card so it arrived on time. That’s something, I must say to be honest, I did not learn from my mom; she was terrible at getting cards to us on time. She might buy them in advance, but she just would rarely remember to mail them or to mail them days in advance to arrive on or just before the birthday date. That’s an especially critical skill when you have family that lives on either end of the coasts. When they did arrive on time, it was an event worth noting.