Mothers Come In Lots Of Different Packages

Every Mother's Day since 2002 I have only been able to remember my mom.

All five-foot, 95 pounds of her was mother to six children and grandmother to 13 and was without a doubt the glue that held us all together. While my dad was ill and passed away in January of 2000, my mother was also sick. She had leukemia. But she didn't tell any of her kids because she didn't want us to worry about her. She just wanted us to concentrate on my dad. How is that for courage?

I wonder how my wife and I are doing as parents to our three children. I can only imagine what my mother went through with six of us. I think we do a good job but only time will tell.

I was bolstered with some hopeful parental thoughts as I walked around the Berlin Lions' Club Wine Tasting Saturday night on the eve of Mother's Day. I saw one of my former golfers Amy Bordonaro, who has become a great friend. She works in Greenwich and lives in New York City so she doesn't get back to Berlin too much. So it was great to see her at the event with her mom Donna and her dad Dave. Sure she met plenty of friends there but here she was having a great time with her parents.

Same goes for Meghan Chasse. Not only did we see her at the Wine Tasting with her parents Mark and Maura, we saw them at the diner after it. I told Meghan how cool it was to see her with her parents and her dad said, we love hanging out with all the kids. Meghan added "your kids will be the same way, you guys are cool."

I don't know how cool we are and I don't want our kids to grow up any faster than they already have but I dream of the day when our children have grown and they still like hanging out with their parents.

My wife, who is without a doubt the disciplinarian in our house contrary to what most people think, said she thought if her mom was still alive she would have been drinking wine with her at the event. "Either that or babysitting the kids," she said.

So happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. Happy Mother's Day to my mom, who I miss every day. Happy Mother's Day to my wife, who a lot like my mom is the glue that holds our family together. And happy Mother's Day to all those moms (and dads) who are cool enough to still have their children hang around with them. Enjoy every second of it.