Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is a very special day in our family. Today is my Mom's birthday. Not just any birthday though - her 50th birthday. She may have a comment or two about me revealing her age on my blog post, but this is a very special birthday and deserves celebration and admiration!

Mom, on your birthday I want to remind you of a few reasons why I believe I have the best mother in the world: 

-- You climb flights and flights of stairs to help me move into my first apartment despite the pain and discomfort you have been feeling in your knee lately. 

-- You listen to me rant about difficulties in school and at work and you always sympathize, even if I'm blowing things way out of proportion. 

-- When I come home after being away for a while, you wash my sheets and hang them out on the clothes line because you know how much I love the smell of freshly air-dried sheets. 

-- You make the best chocolate chip cookies! 

-- You know how much better it feels to have your mom when you're sick, so even at 23, you nurture me back to health and my heart always feels whole again afterwards. 

-- Hello! You give the best hugs ever! 

-- Snowstorm after snowstorm, you trucked me all over the province and sat in the bleachers for almost every figure skating competition I competed in. Your support and love inspired me to always do my best (even though I never did become a world famous figure skater). 

-- You love me for who I am, inside and out - tattoo and all ;-)

Happy Birthday, Mom! Love you, always and forever.

Side note: For Mother's Day, my Dad wrote an original poem for my Mom. After hearing it, I promised it would make an appearance on my blog. Today seems like the perfect day for it:

A poem for Heather Ann Dickinson by Stephen Jack Dickinson

It's your special day today, 

It's a wonder you're still sane;

The years you put up with us, 

Even through your aches and pains. 

You're a friend, a mom, and a wife, 

You did this all for free; 

I will treat you with some cash, 

So you can enjoy a shopping spree. 

I will reward you with your cash, 

On the week-end you turn fifty; 

To shop for some new clothes, 

To make you look more nifty. 

Enjoy your day with all of us, 

We will wait on you with pride; 

Cause you are a special mom, 

And we will always be by your side. 

The End. 

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my rock, my best friend, and my confidant. I'm so blessed to have such a beautiful mother, inside and out who supports me and encourages me to do my best and reach for the stars. Love you, Mom!

"I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine - she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights."  ~ Terri Guillemets

In Memory of a Great Man.

The feeling, the sights, and the sounds are imprinted in my mind forever. Laying on the couch in the family room in the Palliative Care unit, my mother telling those of us who were taking in a small nap that it was time. Panic set in, and nothing could prepare me for the sadness that was to come that night and in the following days.

Never before have I felt time fly by faster than this past year. 365 days have passed and not one day went by where I didn’t think of him, think about that day, and think about how soon he was taken from us. May 9^th, 2011 at 12:45am my beloved Grandad passed away after a long and tiring battle with cancer.

Everything in the two days leading up to his death and the week after are so fresh in my memory it seems like it only happened yesterday. Getting the phone call before work that it was time for me to come to Saint John to be by his side, the emotions that ran high in the hospital room when he took his last breath, the eyes that were on myself and the rest of my family the day of his funeral, then exactly one week after his death standing in front of a thousand people accepting my university diploma fighting back tears knowing he wasn’t there. I can easily say that the passing of my Grandad was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through thus far in my 23 years. 

 

My Grandad was a great man. He took pride in his family, and adored his grandchildren. He was our leader, and would bend over backwards for any of us. I can still picture him standing against the glass watching Brad play hockey, watching through the fence as the four grandchildren soaked up the summer sun in the pool, and distributing the Christmas presents from Uncle David's Christmas parcel on Christmas day, fixing his glasses to read the small print that David put on every present. I remember all of those things just as much as I remember Grandmom sitting at his bedside holding his hand as he struggled to take his last breath and she whispering "It's okay" "It's okay, you can go." I admire their 50 year marriage that was fully of love, support, and encouragement - I aspire to love someone that way someday. 

To my family, this has no doubt been a difficult year. I believe we have become stronger and closer over the last year, and Grandad would be very proud of us and how we have dealt with this great loss - for me, my first. I know he is watching over us everyday, brimming from ear to ear with love and pride. I could not have gotten through this year without you all, and I always know that through thick and thin you'll always be a phone call away, always and forever. 

To Grandad, I miss you everyday. You were nothing but supportive and encouraging of me, and I missed you terribly when I walked across that stage to accept my diploma. Despite you physically not being there, I could feel you smiling and whispering to me "Way to go, number one Granddaughter!" And as another degree nears its ending, I will feel you once again as I cross the stage, and I will look up and wink, because this one's for you. Love you, always and forever.