Mother of All Days

I've said this before but it bears repeating: of all of my manifold blessings, I'm probably luckiest in having parents that messed me up the least of anyone I know. I claim complete ownership of all of my neuroses and personality defects -- my folks gave me unconditional love and support.

Wifey --not so much. Her parents were damaged terribly, as expected, by the Holocaust, and they have visited much pathology on her. It's never on purpose --they love her dearly --but Wifey has borne the burden of the Shoah as the child of survivors.

To her credit, she has overcome much of the difficulty --and become a tremendous mother. She loves D1 and D2 more than life itself, and she has followed through on her design for parenthood, something she told me when we first got into this business nearly 20 years ago: "Give them roots, and then give them wings."

I'm so proud of my girls, and Wifey gets the lion share of the credit. Today we celebrated her Congressionally mandated Day.

We went to the Deering Estate, where they had a Mother's Day brunch. We ate a delicious meal (Wifey even had a few sips of champagne) and then toured the grounds. The Estate was built by the much less flashy of the Deering brothers, James, and it shows in the rustic house he had built in the 1920s, in comparison to Vizcaya, the opulent mini Versailles his brother John built 15 miles to the north.

We walked down the grassy hill to Biscayne Bay. D1 and D2, in flowing sun dresses, held hands and laughed. If there's a sweeter sight than your children truly bonded and best friends, I don't know what it is. Wifey smiled. It was a DAMN fine morning.

Probably by tomorrow, reality will return, and D2 will do something to make Wifey sad, and D1 will get angry,,, Still, the job Wifey did, in raising these 2 fine young women can't be gainsaid.

I'm a literal minded, task oriented guy. While I realize that parenthood is forever, my legal responsibilities end in February, 2010, when D2 turns 18. I'm having a HUGE party for all of us, I promise, to celebrate our official "retirement" from the intense task of raising children we have undertaken. The guest of honor at this retirement party will be Wifey. Happy Mother's Day, W.