Another Mother’s day has come upon us and I am once again reminded how lucky and grateful I am to have the mother that I have. As a kid, my mother was always the most unusual one in the bunch. Living in West Virginia and being Polish, mothers like mine with a thick accent and an entirely different background were few and far between. I’ll admit, as an adolescent I was even a little embarrassed at times, just because like most adolescents I wanted so badly to be like everyone else. But as I grew older I began to understand the beauty of not being the same as everyone else. I grew proud of our differences and embraced them. Today I am so thankful that I had the experience of absorbing two completely different cultures growing up, as I believe it broadened my thoughts and dreams. I owe that to my mother.

I have a reason (one of many) to be thankful and proud of my father’s background as well, especially today. Some people don’t know this, but Mother’s day originated in West Virginia. A lady named Anna Jarvis celebrated the first Mother’s day in 1908 in Grafton, West Virginia. It became a designated holiday in 1914 because of this celebration. That’s right, it was a hillbilly who first thought to raise up their mother and celebrate mothers every where. We’re a pretty sentimental bunch you see. Miss Jarvis believed that a mother is “the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world”. And unless you can top the gift of life, I suppose that is very true.

My matka has done so much for me, like so many other mothers. So today I thank her. I adore her. I am proud of her. Today and every day, I love her. Mom, thank you… thank you for lying next to me until I fell asleep when I was scared, thank you for making sure I got to where I needed to be even if it meant we had to walk across town, thank you for feeding me and caring for my needs, thank you for reading to me every day, thank you for telling me stories of your childhood and your past, thank you for holding me when I cried over a broken toy or a broken heart, thank you for teaching me what it means to embrace life and to laugh as often as possible, thank you for showing me there is a whole big world and for showing me my place in it, thank you for making up songs and stories for me to entertain me, thank you for my brothers, thank you for worrying about me, thank you for breaking your back to work tirelessly and provide for me, thank you for passing that work ethic on to me. Most of all, thank you for loving me so powerfully and so endlessly that I always know where home is; it’s where you are. You are my lighthouse, my hero, my friend, my mother. And I am so very thankful to be your daughter.