My mother. My loving, kind-hearted, generous mother. A mother who has been an example of strength and courage; one who has shown unyielding support for me. A woman who has chosen in her life to make her two children her priority, and who I think, if I may say so, she has taught well.
My mother has not traveled much in her life due to her choices. Over the years, she has barely left her state of California. But, I know she does not regret that at all, not one bit, because of her two priorities, my sister and me.
That is, except for one special trip that, along with my sister, the three of us took together several years ago. During the middle of my five-month solo journey in Europe, my sister emailed me one day, “Mom and I want to visit you in Italy.” “Great,” I said. “Fabulous. You two book your flights, meet me here, and I will handle the rest.”
my sister and my mother at the Roman Coliseum
I planned a wonderful 8-day trip from Venice to Rome to Florence to the Cinque Terre and back to Venice. My mom said that this was the “trip of her lifetime,” a dream vacation; one that she remembers almost daily; one that she keeps a photo album of next to her bed; one that she holds dear to her heart.
But this blog is not about that trip. I can save that for another time. No, this blog is about how my mother is my biggest fan of my blogging. And she doesn’t even own a computer, let alone go anywhere to get internet access!
No, instead, she listens to my blogs. She lets me read them to her over the phone. I read her my stories just as she used to read me stories when I was a little girl. Although, the difference is that various other people wrote the stories she read to me, whereas I read her stories written by me. And to her, that is amazing, sweet, and quite special!
my sister and my mother at the Cinque Terre
I not only read my stories to my mother so that she can enjoy them, but it also actually allows me to edit them. As I read the blogs aloud to her, with my bluetooth in ear, so my hands are free to type, I can make changes and fix things that I find as I am reading out loud.
Sometimes I read her my blogs, not just once, but two, three, four, even five times, until I am satisfied with what I have written and I am ready to publish them for the potential rest of the world to read. And even though she hears my stories over and over again, she never complains. She treasures them each time I share them with her.
In fact, she tells me that she “loves my stories.” I know that she is my mother, and could just be saying that to support me, but I don’t think so. I know she genuinely loves my stories. She says that they paint a picture for her, and she can see where I have traveled, as if she went there too.
my sister, my mother, and me
Because she doesn’t ever see them on the internet, I will sometimes describe to her the pictures that I put with my blogs. And then when a blog is published, I will print it out and save it in a pile, so that each time I visit her, I bring her a stack of the actual blogs that I have written, complete with pictures and everything.
While my mom says that someday her two other dream vacations would be to Paris and to Greece, for now she listens to my stories. My mother is my biggest fan, and for this I say to her, for all the world to potentially read, “Thank you, Mom. I love you.”
Sweet Travels!