Mother's Day 2026

Today is Mother's Day so to my son Dean, remember to say "Hi!" to your mom.

Dean and I communicate via blog.

Yesterday I ventured forth to Target to get my wife Andrea a Mother's Day card.  

There are Mother's Day cards from husbands to their wives but these are mostly filled with treacly Hallmark sentimentality that is very much out of character for me.  

One time I gave Andrea a card that was kind of sweet and heartfelt.  She was worried. "Are you going to die?"  

Finally I spied a card with a dog on it. Nailed it!

Andrea likes cards with cute dogs on them. 

I was standing next to a young woman who was having some difficulty find a card for her mother with a repeated refrain: 

• "No, not that one!" 
• "No, not that one!" 
• "No, not that one!" 

Taylor Tomlinson did some stand up on the problems for adults buying a greeting card for a parent.  Too much water under the bridge.

• "Thank you for always being there for me! Nope!"
• "Thank you for accepting me as I am! Nah, that's not gonna work." 
• "Is there a card that simply says 'You are my mom" and full stop?"

I used to struggle with getting cards for my mom and dad for similar reasons. Thankfully, I don't have to do that anymore because they're both dead.

Wait! "Thankfully"? 

Really, my parents are dead and I'm seeing an upside in not giving the folks at Hallmark any of my money to express empty platitudes?

I admittedly had complicated relationships with my parents.  

And perhaps I have some reasons to be angry with them for decisions they made when I was young that affected the course of my life.

But they hardly seem to matter now.

Here is a photo I recently found on Facebook of me with my mother and my brother.  

This was taken about a year or so before she died.

I am struck by how small and frail she is in this picture.  At this point, she was in assisted living, in the early stages of the Alzheimer's that would claim her life.  

She was such a strong woman, fierce and passionate about things that were important to her.  

She was my strongest advocate even when perhaps I didn't deserve it.  

Sometimes I dream she is still alive and then I wake up to chastise myself for not calling her more often, then remembering I can't.  

Is the primary function of Mother's Day to instill feelings of guilt?

Now I'm missing the stuggle of finding her a card.

Like me, she wasn't big on sentimentality.

So it would have to be funny. Or have a picture of a cat.

Here's to Mother's Day for all our mothers still with us today and to those who loved so long ago.