On Wednesday, my mother is having a birthday.  We won’t mention which one because you never ask a lady her age.  And because that will tell you mine.  We have a girls day planned with shopping, lunching, a massage, a movie and whatever else catches our attention.  Just a day of fun to celebrate an amazing woman.

Growing up, I could have told you my mother taught 8th grade English….at my middle school.  Oh the torture of it all.  Having all of my friends & the super cool people really know my mom.  Sometimes she was mean to them.  Not just making their amazing stories bleed red from corrections, but calling them out in class if they talked a little or even giving them a detention!

I could also tell you she sang in the church choir, attended church and choir practice every Wednesday night.  She played volleyball at the church with my dad and sometimes actually hit the ball.  And she was Valedictorian as well as Prom Queen of her high school class.

But that’s just all facts.  Yes, even the torture of going to school in the same building where she taught.

Now that I’m older…oh the cliche of it all….my mother is now one of my closets friends.  She still mothers me some, and I still baulk.  She still even edits my writings.  Just not this one so if you see a grammatical error that’s why and please forgive me.  But now I see she is funny, witty, hard working, creative, intelligent -she was first in her class for a reason- and amazing.  Born in the family home all those years ago in Arkansas with no air conditioning in July, she went on to graduate college at the top of her class, travel the world with diplomatic passports, have a French maid, have a gardener and china actually purchased in Hong Kong.

This weekend, she heads off once again to the acclaimed Mayborn Literary Non-Fiction conference right here in Dallas where another one of her writings was accepted.  They have published her writing before.  She is now in the running for the fourth time!

From such humble beginnings, my mother has stepped out quietly and humbly forging on as a modern woman achieving great things while being true to herself.  I’m blessed to call her my mother as well as my friend.