Times Mom Stood Up for Me"

The assignment is to pick a particular moment when Mom stood up for me. One? Seriously? One.  Ok, I guess that narrows it down to the time frame between 1955 and 2003. It was but a fleeting moment, that time frame; a moment that was over much too fast. Standing up for me on the first day of nursery school, first day of kindergarten, first day of elementary school, the first day of a new school or neighborhood. No, it has to be more than that. Standing up for me when we both knew I did something wrong, no matter how old I was. She wasn’t condoning whatever it was I did, but she was right there beside me. It didn’t matter if it was sandbox politics or a divorce, and she never said, “I told you so.” She stood up for me in the face of bad teachers or school administrations; unwarranted belittling from the other parent; defended my right to join a peace march in the 60s and was right there with water, food, and Band-Aids for blisters at the end of the march. She stood up for me when I made the choice to become a single parent. She never coddled or smothered. She taught me to be an individual. She let me fall on my face when I just would not learn any other way, (which was a lot of the time). I wish she were still with us, so I could tell her, “Thanks, Mom, for always standing up for me”. Cancer was the one she couldn’t stand up against, although she fought a valiant battle. She slipped away quietly when we weren’t looking, as gracefully as she had led her life. That was just one more way of her standing up for me, again.

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