A Picture Perfect Mother’s Day

It’s 11:00 am. I’ve already showered, exercised, and painted my face. Just kidding it's the makeup I didn’t really paint my face. I grab all the DVDs that I brought from my dad’s house. My parents never lived together for as long as I can remember. My mother left my father for years. They go back and forth and I’m the bridge that keeps them together. I wish I weren’t, but I am.

It’s May 10, 2020, Mother’s Day for 2020. I find my mom on the couch in her soft pink and grey pajamas.

I ask “Mom have you had breakfast yet?”

My mom responds with “No darling I have not.”

I ask her “Would you like a croissant?”

She says to me so calmly “Yes I would love one.”

I continue to ask “With butter and jam?”

She responds so relaxedly “Yes I would like that. Thank you, Darling.”

I go to the kitchen, get the croissant box out, slice it in half with a butter knife and use the pink spray bottle to spray the croissant with water so it doesn’t become too dry. I place both slices in the toaster oven on the other side of the counter. As I wait for the croissant to warm up I go into the closet to look for the nail polish and manicure set which was kept in a big black lace decorated case with a black handle. The timer on the toaster oven is still on as I set it up in the living room. The white peonies and purple lilacs are as noticeable as my nerves hoping it’ll be a calm Mother’s Day. As I go back to the kitchen to aid my mother’s slightly burned croissant with the butter sitting on the counter and the boysenberry jam.

As I prepare my mom’s croissant I see her walk into the kitchen to refill her coffee. I notice her grabbing Bailey’s alcohol underneath the glass table by the kitchen window with the cast iron designs. I place the croissant slices on the plate as I watch her pour some of the sweet-smelling alcohol into her coffee. I look at her and my face basically says Are you sure? My mom looks at me sugared and fed.

She looks at me and says “Special occasion “

I look at my mom and respond with “Ok then…..I mean it’s your day”

I open the boysenberry jam and wipe the butter knife with a napkin and use it to smear the jam.

I bring the plate to my mom and tell her “Ok mother here is your croissant with jam as ordered. Maybe a little burnt but, you like it a little flaky.”

As my mom is eating her croissant I ask her” So which movie do you want to start with? The Joy Luck Club, Maleficent, Funny Face, Pride And Prejudice, or Letters To Juliet.”

She looks at me and says “I need a tiebreaker between Maleficent and, The Joy Luck Club.”

After five minutes of talking about how depressing The Joy Luck Club is, I placed the DVD into the player in the living room and we started to watch it. Towards the end of the movie, one of the mothers said to their daughter June

“See June everything best quality”

June thought to herself “That’s how my mother was everything had to be best quality”

And that’s when I remembered my mother is the same way. She didn’t mind my first relationship but, I saw right through her all the time. He was definitely not the Best quality boyfriend. Besides using he did a number on me, and I let him. It’s something I won’t forget.

After my brief thoughts, my mom told me “Always take things of the best quality. Don’t be suck up.”

My awkward response was “Ok mom. I will for sure keep that mind.”

My first relationship haunts me like the ghost of Christmas past. Come to think of it, holidays were always the worst time of year even if it’s a holiday that only lasts one day. My family never succeeds in making the yuletide gay. What my family does during the holidays is drown the sorrows in Bailey's alcohol and the martinis. Later that day we ended up in the kitchen making dinner I was trying to tell my mother to go on the couch. However, when I was slicing the mushrooms my mother was prepping the garlic for mincing. With every hit onto the cutting board, my heart rate goes up. I think to myself if I did anything wrong. With every heavy sigh, my blood pressure goes up.

My mother says after a heavy sigh “I’ve accepted my fate. To be nothing but, a servant for the rest of my life.”

I finished slicing the mushrooms but I’m afraid to check my phone. Even though I know for a fact it’s my friend Anthony.As the movie Steel Magnolia plays on the tv in the living room one of the characters says something that my mom was confident to admit was her favorite line.

Shelby from Steel Magnolia says “I’d rather have a moment of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing”

My mom says with confidence “That’s my favorite line. “I’d rather have a moment of wonderful than a moment of nothing”.”

I thought to myself what does that mean? After watching Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn the city started to wind down and so did I. I was upset we didn’t join in the eight o’clock banging and cheering in honor of the first responders to covid. I was sad and disappointed that no matter how hard I tried to please her, to help her relax, and to avoid heavy sighs that I failed. While all of us may look perfect in our family photos the glass holding the picture still cracks.By falling from the wall, or being tipped over from a table. We all have our fantasy of our picture-perfect family, without it all the smiles on our google drive, photo paper would mean nothing. However many things can go wrong in a flash. May I say that Mother’s Day of 2020 wasn’t picture perfect or, camera-ready but it was just like the other ones. Started out as calm as kids playing in the park. Then ended with a bad photo worth remembering for years on top of the other bad Mother’s Days.