My son and I awoke early this sunny Mother’s Day morning…yes…I set the alarm for 6:30 am…time to rise and shine for our annual walk in the Susan B.Komen Race for the Cure in Philadelphia…the yearly day my son and I walk together…the course was different this year…we started at the same spot in front of the Philadelphia Art Museum…but after the parkway stroll…it turned off in a different direction…not the usual turn…or usual street…this year we headed in a new direction…yes…this year there was a newness to our walk.
But, my son and I kept up pace…we walked together…we talked together…we ran a bit (that is until my 50 year old knees started to hurt)…and jutted in-between people…we jutted between those who walked in celebration of their moms who had survived breast cancer…and those who walked in memory of their moms and grandmoms who hadn’t survived…it was a moving morning in many ways.
And as I walked…I felt closer to these survivors…yes…this year, while I am not a breast cancer survivor…I felt like my son and I were survivors too…yes…with all the losses we had been through since our last Mother’s Day…the loss of my husband (his father) and my mother-in-law (his nana)…our walk felt really different this year…not just because of the different sights and sounds…or the new Comcast skyscraper we passed…it felt different because we were survivors who were moving our feet forward step by step…and we were not only keeping up pace…we were outpacing many around us.
“What’s my present?” I said to my son as we crossed the finish line at 54 minutes to be exact…”What’s my Mother’s Day present?”
“Your present,” he said, “Your present is having me here with you…walking with you for one entire hour…talking with you for one entire hour…being with you for one entire hour…on a Sunday morning…when I normally would be and should be sleeping…the presence of my company on this early Sunday morning is your Mother’s Day present.”
“Hmm, hmm, hmm,” I thought, “I couldn’t think of a better present than having my 17 year old…soon to be 18 year old son walking beside me…and talking beside me…yes…talking beside me in person…without his cell phone on his ear…or without some other distracting piece of electronic equipment on his head or in his hands.” This is a wonderful Mother’s Day present…a truly wonderful Mother’s Day present…I couldn’t ask for a better present…and when he gave me a warm hug and a kiss on the cheek as we finished the race…it made my Mother’s Day morning even more special.
Next year my son will be in college…hope he will come home to walk with me…to talk with me on the second Sunday in May..Mother’s Day just wouldn’t be the same without his present.
Judi
