My mom is my best friend, teacher, therapist, my rock, and occasionally as much as she may not want to admit it, she has acted as my maid on one too many occasions. She taught me valuable life lessons such as tying my shoes, riding a bike, driving a car, how to load a dishwasher, and even to do my own laundry. Bless my mother for teaching me a list of useful tasks, for I would not be who I am today without them. However, growing up I learned lessons that my mother hadn’t taught me, from a group of women that grew to be my "other moms." I can turn to them with whatever, talk to them about anything, and most of all know that with every move I make in life, I have my own mother, and my adoptive mothers as well.
They have been with me for as long as I can remember, and although for most of my life I was too young to understand their value, as I grow older I truly understand how lucky I am to have my four other mothers. Their kids turned into some of my best friends and additional brothers and sisters, to the point that I have spent more birthdays, Easters, Christmases and Friday nights sitting around the dining room table listening to my mom and her best friends talk about life, wine, cheese and who was picking up the kids, than anything else. I would not have had it any other way.
My mother will always be my biggest teacher and supporter, but not too far behind her is you. You taught me the things that not every mother wants their daughter to learn at age twelve (such as a whole new vocabulary of colorful words), but learning a new word every week from you quickly became the normal. After spending far too many Fridays with you growing up it was finally established that I have heard everything and anything, and there was no need to filter what was the topic of conversation was. However you did filer some things with “Shut the front door” which has now turned into a saying amongst all of us. You taught me how to make a proper cheese board including only the best cheese and crackers, and on the biggest board imaginable, to ensure no one would need to get up to refill and miss any of the gossip. You taught me how to back out of a driveway since I didn’t have one, but made me remember to this day turn the wheel wherever you want your butt to be. Probably one of the most valuable pieces of information I have ever been given.
You taught me how to go on vacation and have the best time possible making sure to spend as many hours by the pool, but to make sure you have the proper protection from the sun, such as sunscreen, a hat, sunglasses, the list went on and on to the point where I would have not been surprised if a parka was thrown into the mix to make sure I was covered from the sun. But hey, you didn’t want me to get wrinkles or melanoma, so I appreciate the protection. You taught me how to be the most understanding and caring person ever. From sitting in a car with me for an hour letting me vent, to giving me the reassuring feeling that I can turn to you for anything and pull into the driveway whenever I needed to talk. The way you sit and listen and not have a judgmental or annoyed tone in your voice or on your face made me feel safer than I have ever felt being able to talk to someone so open and freely.
You women are not just my mom’s best friends, my brother’s best friend’s moms, you are my moms. You are my best friends, my shoulders to cry on, and my source of entertainment when life gets too serious. Through it all I know I have an adoptive mother in you and I have turned into either your one or only daughter, or added to the number of girls in the family.
Thank you for everything you have done to help shape me into the woman I am today, for I would not be the ravishing creature standing before you if it were not for you.
