Editorial: In celebration of mothers

Orson Welles famously said that we are born alone and we die alone.

He was only half right.

Few people are truly born alone. That first birthday sets up a relationship that defines our lives. When we are born — whether it is in a hospital or a home or a taxi cab, attended by doctors or midwives or no one else — the very act is the first gift given to us by our mothers.

Not everyone has a perfect relationship with Mom. Maybe she was overprotective. Maybe you were rebellious. Maybe you clashed at every turn or maybe you were best friends. But on that day you were born, she was the person who was there.

And as much as that relationship shaped you, it shaped her, too — especially if you happen to be the first born. It means you were the person who took her from being an individual to being a mother.

Not that she wasn’t still a person with her own ideas and goals and wants after you were born. She absolutely was. But from the moment you took your first breath, your mother had a second path to consider at every turn.

There was what she wanted and there was what she wanted for you. What was best for her and what was best for her children. What she hoped for herself and what she dreamed for her kids.

Not every mom lives up to those ideals. In fact, mothers still make plenty of mistakes along the way. But a good mom is not one who doesn’t make mistakes. She is one who hopes you are paying attention and learn from them so you don’t make them, too.

On Mother’s Day, we celebrate the mothers who gave us that first, most precious gift that we carry with us until the day we lay it down and leave this world. We honor the mothers who held our hands when we were children and who let us go when we grew up even though it broke their hearts.

We salute the moms who did it right, the ones who stumbled, the ones who got back up, the ones who tried and even the ones who kissed a tiny forehead and handed that new life over to someone else to raise. We remember the moms we have lost because, no matter how long it has been or how old we grow, the hole they leave is still there.

Happy Mother’s Day.