Sandi Bruton

A day late but...

My Mother:

1. Has the funniest and most enthusiastic laugh ever. It frequently starts with a shouting-like exclamation and almost always ends in a snort (or ten).

2. Drives all the way to Seattle every Monday to be with my kid for 5 hours before driving all the way home to Bellingham. I've tried to talk her out of this nonsense, but she won't have it.

3. I recently learned from my sister in law that she ALSO drives to Seattle every Thursday to take care of her other granddaughter. She never complains about the commute.

4. While driving me home from ballet carpool as a pre-teen, explained to me that 'love was love' and if you were lucky enough to find it, you should hold on tight and that no one should care whether the person you loved was a boy or girl.

5. Let me buy my own clothes in middle school and didn't laugh in my face when I came home with a peach and baby-blue gunny sack with a sailor neck and floral knotted bottom. She later told me she laughed behind closed doors, but I never knew.

6. Gave me the hard-core silent treatment for like 2 whole days when I graduated high school and didn't go to the church service that honored graduating seniors (I forgot it was that week). When they called my name to come to the front and pick up the ugly candle that had been made for each senior, my Mother was publicly shamed for having a heathen daughter. She threw the candle at me when she came home and found me lazing on the basement couch.

7. Can peel an apple in one curly stripe and makes a mean tuna casserole.

8. Was a tireless advocate for me growing up and always took the abuse I hurled at her.

9. Likes to send me photo texts of her in the mirror wearing different outfits for me to help her choose what to wear to different events.

10. Is a font of relationship knowledge that I never appreciated growing up. The more I learn about myself, the more I understand her and feel retroactively grateful for the childhood I had. After years of preaching our differences, I now feel lucky to be finding more and more similarities between us.