Leif and His Mother on May 13, 2007, Mother's Day - Sun City Center, Florida - Age 32

On Mother's Day I am thankful for my two sons and my husband, without whom I wouldn't be a mother. I am thankful for forty years of rewarding and enchanting motherhood. I will always be glad for those relationships, those experiences, and I embrace the totality of them. The problems we had when they were young seem to small now, so relatively easy to endure and improve.

I'm grateful for the relationships we have had with our adult sons, for the opportunity to see them grow and become men, for all the things they have brought into our lives.

Many mothers of grown children are far from their children on Mother's Day but can look forward to a call, a card, perhaps a gift. I was fortunate for so many years of Leif's life that he was with us on Mother's Day. Of his 33 years, he was with me on Mother's Day for 30 of them. How fortunate I was!

The last Mother's Day when I saw Leif, the last one he was alive, was 2007. As he was leaving that evening after dinner (a delicious one made by Peter W., his dad) and visiting, I asked Peter to take a picture of us together. I never dreamed it would be the last time I saw him on Mother's Day. How glad I am to have this photo.

Even so, I look at this photo and I can see that Leif was not well. I don't know what physical problems he may have had other than the asthma, but he had gained a lot of weight, which worried me, and he was not happy. Eleven months later, after a long series of problems and misery, he was dead. I will miss his smile, hugs and lively conversation, but I will remain grateful for those 30 Mother's Days we spent together.

And I am so thankful for my family, and that I can spend this Mother's Day with my own wonderful mother, still with me at 90.