Mother’s Day. A day that is exactly like the other 364 except that there are more men in the grocery store holding flowers which increases demand and inflates their price to tulips-in-17th-century-Holland levels, thereby allowing men to flip the script (for once!) when they have to defend their exorbitant shopping behavior to their significant other. Also the one day that Dads can’t cop out and say, “Go ask your mother.”

As a kid, I used to ask my Mom, “There’s a Mother’s Day and a Father’s Day, but why isn’t there a Kid’s day?” To which she would reply, “Because every day is Kids Day.” I didn’t like this answer back then, but I think I’m finally starting to understand it. And don’t tell her I admitted this, but like most things she was right (except for that one time she threw me off a pier into the water when I was five because I was “being a brat”… okay, fine, maybe she was right about that decision too). What I didn’t realize back then is that it’s the recognition that makes this day important. It isn’t about particular gifts, and you certainly don’t get a day off from being a Mother – as much as some might like that! And boy, this Mother’s Day we sure had a lot to recognize!

There’s this Mother. Who calmly navigates a sea of uncertainty, worry, pain, discomfort, and my terrible jokes, with a boldness and conviction that can easily lull you into a state of complacency given how easy she makes it seem.

Cathy dealing with a little talked about side effect of cancer: boredom

This Mother, had a largely uneventful hospital stay – except for a minor allergic reaction to one of the drugs, which was easily cleared up with some trusty Benadryl. In fact she had six of her girlfriends visit her in the hospital on Friday night, and they were so rowdy and rambunctious that someone in a neighboring room came over and slammed her door shut in an errant attempt to quiet them down. I wasn’t there when this happened, but I’m told, “it was just a small get together. You couldn’t even even consider it a party really. There definitely wasn’t any alcohol.” When pressed if there were any other substances at this “get together,” the sheepish reply was, “Well there were drugs… but only for Cathy.” After a brief investigation, I determined that groundings weren’t warranted.

This Mother was hit a bit harder by the drugs this round. She’s more fatigued and moving slower, which is expected given that this regiment craters your blood counts (on purpose). While her red blood cell counts are lower, her spirits are steady!

All of that would be reason enough to celebrate this Mother on Mother’s Day. Except, there’s another big reason to celebrate this year. And that other big reason, turns ‘this Mother’ to ‘these Mothers’ and flips the apostrophe in Mother’s Day to the other side of the s.

Do you see it yet? Here, let me enhance the photo:

Mama Bear is going to be a Grandma Bear!

That’s right, Lindsay and Rob are expecting their first baby! The due date is October 19th, which could make things even more interesting than they already are given that Suzanne and I are getting married on October 7th.

While this is news to most of you, this is something we’ve been keeping secret for quite some time. And in fact, it’s the timing of all of this can by definition be called miraculous, and is definitely the plot of a made for TV movie (probably on the Hallmark channel). Rewind to February. We had just met with Mom’s doctor who told us that the lump he removed was cancerous. At that point we didn’t know how bad, or what the options were. We only had a name: Lymphoma. Mom has cancer. Here we go again. Can’t we catch a break? Will we get good news?

Well life is weird, which is exactly how Lindsay felt the next morning when she woke up. Weird. And not “we’re meeting an Oncologist in five hours and I’m praying to get good news” kind of weird. Physically weird. So she took a test. And was it good news? Positively.

Lindsay told my mom that she was going to be a grandma as we were stepping foot into the car to drive to the Oncologist appointment. When we woke up that morning we all knew it would be a fateful day. And it was. But in a way that none of us could have predicted. Not in our wildest dreams.

Happy Mothers’ Day!!!!