mumma

I thank you for what you did for me...all the sacrifices made by you...since my birth...thanx a tonne
I thank you for taking me to buy that lovely red frock with matching bellies and hankerchief and clips...even though i hardly had any hair...
I thank you for letting me watch Rangeela everytime it came on tv but closing my eyes when there was any kissing on screen.
I thank you for grounding me the first time I lied to you: I was in the fourth grade and lied to you about what my friends and I were doing. I admitted it to you in the middle of the night and you grounded me. The lesson was not to ever lie to you; but to never do anything I would feel guilty about later.
I thank you for telling me that I'm tone death after 6 years of vocal music lessons by showing me a video of my recital. I thank you for sparing me the embarrassment of many more.
I thank you for teaching me that your parents and your siblings are your best friends.

I thank you for teaching me the pleasure one gets from breakfast on the dining table with everyone on sundays and decorating the fruit in a pyramid.
I thank you for not hugging me at your mother's demise when I came up to you and telling me to go hug my grandfather instead.
I thank you for teaching me the importance of not giving up, regardless of the sweat and tears.
I thank you for teaching me to always say "thank you" "please" "ma'am" and all those Yiddish sayings that insult with a smile.
I thank you for teaching me to build a brick wall with a steel gate when surrounded by those that are trying to demean or intimidate me.
I thank you for all of relatives and friends of relatives that you let live in our house and offered the best hospitality when they immigrated to our city for medical treatment,as you said-We have more."
I thank you for jumping on the bed and screaming "Isn't Mama Fun?" and then taking me for the best treat in the world which was crazy fun. It was my sixteenth birthday.
I thank you for being neutral on seeing my tattoo and those n number of ear piercings and reacting bare minimum even though you did not like them at all.
I thank you because I know and love that the "best people" I know are my parents. I thank you for always being so selfless, so thoughtful, and yet so animated and full of character. I thank you for your entertaining ridicule and your colorful insults and whereas most would take these personal, I thank you for the tough love because I know that the same powerful woman that to this day remarks on my posture and on what time I come home is the woman that to this day, comes into my room in the middle of the night to make sure that I am covered by a blanket and always cries thinking that one day her daughter will get married and leave forever... and yet says to me with tears in her eyes, "I just want you to be happy." I am happy, mom, because I can celebrate you for the impact that you've had on me...