I’ve been struggling with this memory all day. I think the last time I celebrated Mother’s Day in the presence of my mother, I think I was 18, still in high school. There might have been one, maybe two years after that, but by and large I was living away from home, either in school or on my coop terms. A card and a phone call was the extent of best wishes.
Today is different. Today, my mom lives in the same city. (This is a fact I’m still getting used to. I suspect it’ll become much more real when she starts randomly dropping by the house.) And that means being able to spend some time on Mother’s Day with her!
Not that I haven’t celebrated Mother’s Day with other mothers, notably Alex (mother of my children) and Janice (mother of Alex). We’ve done things before in the past, be it brunch or tea or even the classic breakfast in bed (which the kids haven’t done in forever; I really need to pester them about that), so it’s not like I haven’t had the joy of being around a mother on this auspicious day. Just not with the woman who gave birth to me.
Needless to say, there was some joy in being able to drive up to my mom, waiting outside The Edward, and taking her for brunch at the Grey Eagle. (I genuinely can’t remember the last time I did brunch with her, either. It’s also been a very long time.)
The Grey Eagle does a brilliant Mother’s Day brunch, though we’ve only done it once before, maybe six(?) years ago. We’d been meaning to go back, but work scheduled and COVID threw a lot of plans for a loop. So when I saw the ad for Mothers Day, it suddenly reminded me that, hey, we should do brunch, and made reservations.
We arrived not far ahead of Alex, who was retrieving Janice from her home; we each took one of the kids. Our table was just inside the door, the extensive buffet along the outside wall. The girls were none-too-happy with my “just eat something before diving into the dessert table” request, which is probably why they beelined for the waffles and cream.
We all ate to capacity, as one should do at a buffet. Mom and Janice talked a fair bit. The girls managed to keep their composure (they typically fight when seated next to one another), though Monkey did nag Choo Choo quite a bit about not going to dessert table.
It wasn’t cheap. Although the individual pricing is fairly reasonable (if a bit high), the cost of six adults (the “kids” are bigger than all the mothers) adds up.
It’s good to have time with mom again. I don’t know how much or how often we’ll get it, but even if it’s just weekends for the time being, it’s a decided improvement over what I’ve had for the previous 25 years.
