Thank You For The Sea Monkeys... And So Much More

Thank you Mom for letting me get Sea Monkeys when you knew they would succumb in less time than my interest  as I stared at the tiny brine, wondering why they didn't look simian in any form.

Thanks for getting me the Super Ball that bounced 10 times higher that was bound, in the end, to put out the kitchen light.

Thanks for getting me the Captain Crunch cereal only because I liked the box and the Cracker Jack's for the prizes you would step on in the nighttime on your way to bed…. And also for not calling me on spitting out the peanuts every time.

Thanks Mom, for letting me wear my hair in the most unattractive styles for school picture day and still buying the package.

Mom, thanks for letting me put hundreds of nail holes in my bedroom walls for 5 dollar posters of the Monkees and The Partridge Family.

Thank you for letting me have caramel Sugar Daddy's when you knew you would be paying for the filling it pulled out…And for letting me trade my spinach with my brother who gave me his squash.

Thanks for letting me shave my legs when it clearly didn't yet matter and buying a training bra for me when it mattered even less.

Thanks for letting me have guppies and turtles and hamsters and Guinea pigs and burying each one in quick succession in the garden with nondenominational popsicle stick crosses.

Thank you for vacuuming up the play dough and silly putty I ground into the rug.

Thank you for tucking me in when I was far too old and for telling me you loved me when I had been undeserving of even being liked.

Thank you for being kind to my boyfriends even when they were poor choices and for always saying there was always room for one more at the supper table.

Thank you for the childhood you allowed me to have while you worked full time and still did the housework, shopping and cooking for 6, yet thanking me for dusting for 10 minutes.

Thank you for holding my hair back when I was sick, rubbing Vicks on my chest, and singing to me.

Thank you for saving my school drawings and report cards for 60 years.

 And Mom, thank you for sewing  my Girl scout badges on to my sash, especially my sewing badge.

 Thank you for getting me a cap gun and jackknife  like my brothers' and not picking out the girl's model.

Thank you for encouraging me, supporting me, championing me and loving me...and allowing me to become my own person.

 And thanks for baking the brownies without nuts...)

 Boy, do I miss you.

 ~~~~

About the author ~

Julie Stackpole Kingsbury lives in Maine and is a mother to a psychologist son who has been analyzing her since he could talk and reason. She is surrounded by an entourage of loving family, friends and four legged things that shed. A nurse practitioner career has taught her countless lessons on living, aging and caregiving. None has been more poignant nor life changing than the caregiving and loss, at ninety one, of her beloved mom. With dark chocolate, a clean sheet of lined paper, and her favorite pen at hand, she endeavors to bring these lessons to life.