Mother’s Day Always Special

While I think about how special it is to be a mom every day of the year, I especially think about being a mother on Mother’s Day.

I think about how wonderful it is to be a mom and to still have my own mom with us.

My daughter is 16, and my mom is 91. And I got to spend Mother’s Day enjoying time with both of them.

Yes, Mother’s Day every year makes me a little teary eyed.

One of the reasons is because my 16-year-old daughter always makes me feel loved. And another reason, because turning 17 in a week. (That might be another column.)

While store-bought cards are nice, my daughter’s handmade cards are the best. She usually draws a pretty picture and writes her own creative message.

As my daughter gets older, I assume there may be fewer and fewer handmade cards. And also, the wearing of fewer and fewer dresses.

But not yet. She wore a dress on Mother’s Day, and she has been wearing dresses this school year whenever she has the opportunity.

And she also gets to dress up for show choir performances. By the way, the choir department’s final all-choir concert is tonight, and the show choirs’ final performance of their competition sets is Friday night. Both are free and open to the community.

For Mother’s Day, we always dress up and go out to breakfast. Tradition has been to visit the Noblesville Jim Dandy for the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. The staff is always friendly, and we always see a lot of folks we know there, as we did on Sunday. I especially enjoyed visiting with Benita Watkins, who was celebrating Mother’s Day with her family and whose late husband, Keith Watkins, I had worked with at The Noblesville Ledger.

Some Mothers Days have been spent driving through the countryside, or visiting Conner Prairie or just doing something fun to spend time together. We also like to visit the grandmas and my daughter likes to sing to them on the phone, a “Happy Mother’s Day.” We did that again this year. Then we had a late dinner with family at Grindstone Public House in downtown Noblesville.

One of our traditions is to stop at Gatewood’s Vegetable Farm and Greenhouses in Noblesville, to pick out a large hanging basket of geraniums for our front porch. I used to get pink geraniums, but the last few years I’ve chosen a beautiful red basket of geraniums. And I took my mom a hanging basket of red begonias.

Other moms were there with their families picking out flowers. I like Gatewood’s because it’s local, and the friendly Gatewood family, including Bruce and Chelse Gatewood, and Bruce’s mom, Nancy Gatewood, are always there greeting customers with a smile on their faces. Sometimes, we also stop in at the locally owned L&M Gardens to see their hanging flower baskets, too.

If you weren’t able to visit your mom or call her over the weekend, today’s a good day. Actually, any day is a good day to talk to Mom.

And tell her how special she is – every day of the year.

-Betsy Reason writes about people, places and things in Hamilton County. Contact The Times Editor Betsy Reason at [email protected].