Mothers' Days, UK and US
One of the unexpected trials of living in the UK has been that it presents me with an extra mothers' day to endure: they have one in March, in addition to the US Mothers' Day in May. So each year I've felt the pangs of being a birthmother more strongly both those days, in addition to on my son's birthday.
This past Sunday was different. I found my son last summer. He seems happy, healthy, successful as a translator in Japan, not long married to a beautiful and intelligent young woman.
I thought of my own mother, whom I wish he'd met. She was, as the expression goes, generous to a fault, especially when it came to two of my sisters' drug addictions. The warmth she had...and she, who held him in his first days on earth, would have thrilled to see him again.