M Is For The Million Things She Gave Me

Today marks the birthday of my mother. I am only child & I feel certain that I was all she could handle.

I always feel that it should be the mothers that are celebrated on a birthday & on my recent special day, I texted my mother & asked if she had a long labor with me. She answered back: " No, it was a matter of less than an hour. You were always a really, really good & sweet boy... until you were in high school."

My mother grew up Sue Bunton, not Susan or Suzanne, no middle name (befitting her natural modesty), in small town Hillsboro, Illinois. When she was in school & my father in the Navy, I lived with my grandparents for a short time.

My grandmother took me aside when I was 4 years old & stated: "Your mother never did anything wrong her entire life. She loved to go to church. She always practiced her piano & flute with no struggle. She never received less than an A in any class in school, she never told a lie, picked a fight, or did anything to make us unhappy.” I replied: "Oh, shit! I am really fucked!".

My mother is a very accomplished woman. She is a talented musician. She is a chemist, & she rose through the ranks to become the head of the Chemistry Department at the Rockwood Clinic in Spokane, where she worked for 35+ years until she retired, & even then, she continued to work when called upon, until recently.

Sue, as I addressed her starting at age 5, has beautiful, soulful light blue eyes that make her seem that she would cry at any moment. The Husband says that her demeanor is so saintly it appears that she might levitate at any moment.

It seems so such an unlikely piece of Karma that I should be her only offspring. She loves when I make laugh & have kept her in stitches for nearly 60 years.

Sue, in excellent health, lives in a rural area, in a house she & my father built, 15 miles from Spokane, where she has a busy life of theatre & concert going, swimming, bridge playing & Unity Church activities. Sue Rutledge celebrates her 81st birthday today.

I am so thankful that although she was once a national expert on the running & programming of expensive medical machinery & computers, she remains unable to figure out how to find my blog. Reading my posts would probably kill her.