Mistaken Identity

Mother's Day looms this Sunday. Today is Friday and this morning after Merv was wheeled onto the community bus for his day centre I fiddle around for awhile before I headed off for the liquor store.  Our Mother's Day lunch is at an old fashioned Chinese restaurant.  Nothing there has changed for twenty years but we go back time and time again!  At least the food is reliable.  It is also BYO.  This morning I purchase enough wine at the liquor store to satisfy a small army.  Dustin likes sweet Moscato, Mum enjoys dry white.  I pick some up for myself to keep me going and join the store club.  More time wasted.  I fiddle some more at a shop I had planned to make some purchases but  in the end I don't purchase anything.  Nothing worth buying today.  Then I am home and getting ready for the gym.  There won't be much chance of a work out over the weekend.  Sunday promises to be busy.
My favourite machines are free at the gym and I take advantage of the Tread Climber and a variety of other machines.  Then I'm ready to leave.  As I depart a woman shorter than myself (who is shorter than me?) says hello and says she hasn't seen me for ages. 
I am looking at her with no recognition.  Did she lose 50kgs and therefore she is unrecognisable?  I recognise her voice but I still can't place her.  I wonder if it's mistaken identity.  Maybe I do look so much older than I am.  The seniors group has just departed.  They look soooo old.  It will be a long, long time before I join their group!
Her voice haunts me for awhile but my brain is in overdrive and I soon push it to one side.  Time to get the day sorted. 
Mother's Day will be a regular taxi driving day.  Yes, I am the taxi driver!  Dustin and Grace will be visiting Merv's sister in the morning.  I am pleased that they are.  I will have Merv, Mel and Mum in my car for the trip to and from the restaurant but I already have it all sorted.
This year I'm also doing something different.  My daughter Mel at 36 is not a mother and neither is my daughter in law, Grace at 30.  I want to recognise them as loving people because that is the role of a mother.
Mel took me to the movies yesterday to see the new Mother's Day movie with Jennifer Aniston and Julia Roberts.  It was a chic flick but I enjoyed it immensely.  When the son had an asthma attack and his mum rushed off to the hospital to be with him (you'll have to see the film to know why they weren't together initially) I cried.  It brought back so many memories of Mel and her chronic asthma attacks.  Twice she was in ICU.  Once we almost lost her.  She asthma is much better controlled now.
Mother's Day brings back memories of small children waking me in the morning with tea and toast (burnt or underdone but always appreciated).  I remember as the children grew we had Mother's Day breakfasts or café style lunches followed by wine and chocolate later in the day.
Now I am a Mother to Mel.  She still requires a lot of mothering.  Dustin now married is free of my reins and mothering is no longer on his agenda.  Hopefully there maybe Grandchildren in the future!
Mother's Day is celebrated on different days/months in different parts of the world, but wherever you live I wish all Mums a very 'Happy Mother's Day.'