Sunday Is Mother's Day

I know you're all going to say, "MY mom is the best," but the only other two people on this planet who are allowed to say this are my sisters!

Our mom IS the best.  THE best.  The BEST.  THE BEST.

My mom hasn't had an easy life.  Let's just recap it (very briefly):

She was born in Poland.

She left Poland at the start of WWII to go to Siberia.

She left Siberia, traveled through Iran and Iraq, and left for Africa from the port of Pahlavi.

Went to East Africa, Mombasa, to be exact.  She was then relocated by train and trucks to Nairobi, then to camp in Koja, Kenya.

They were relocated again, to Masindi in Western Uganda, and then to England by way of Egypt.  She traveled by boat, went through the Suez Canal, through the Mediterranean Sea, throught the Strait of Gibraltar, and up to Liverpool, England.

She lived near Newton Abbot in Devonshire (now Devon), in England.  She attended high school and college in England, then relocated again.  She traveled by boat on the second Mauretania in 1952, to New York City, and eventually to NJ, where she met Daddy and the rest is MY history...

She is without a doubt the strongest woman I know.  She has survived WWII, living in camps an surviving on potatoes, the loss of her home, the deaths of her sister, parents and husband.  She has struggled with many surgeries, survived bladder cancer, suffered much physical pain, with not one complaint.

I have always said that if I could be half the woman she is, half the mother she is, I'd consider myself a total success.

Mommy, thank you.  Thanks for teaching me right from wrong.  Thanks for showing me what a good, strong, loving marriage is.  Thanks for showing me, by example, what a good, strong, loving woman is.

You are an incredible mom, and am proud of you.  I love you. 

And that awesome news you just gave me?  That you're cancer-free again? 

YAY!!!