Selena Robins, Author

In Italian culture, the month of May is dedicated to mom’s everywhere. Let’s go with that. Why one day? Let’s make May the Mother Month.

Remembering two beautiful women I was privileged to call Mother.

My Mom and Mom-in-Law

In the short time that my mom held my hand, her teachings have always stayed with me, even when it was tough to smile in the face of some of life’s challenges, something she taught me—a sense of humor is the best gift you give to yourself and others.

Main thing my mom taught me was to treat others even better than I expect to be treated.

She taught me by example to be kind, sensitive, charitable, classy, embrace the arts, and to always have tomato sauce in the freezer and plenty of pasta on hand in case unexpected visitors show up at dinner time.

You know the saying, “You’ve now turned into your mother.” I take that as a compliment and hope that I can be half the woman, mother, nanna, aunt, sister, girlfriend my mom was.

My mom also advised me not to close my eyes when kissing a boy. I remember her saying that realistically she hoped it would be when I was 18 or so, as opposed to my dad hoping it would happen when I was thirty.

When the time came for that first kiss, I took this piece of advice—literally, as in: Did. Not. Close. My. Eyes.

When I told her about it, she did what every mom would have done in this situation—stifle a laugh and then explain exactly what she meant.

Her advice was metaphorical for—-don’t shut everything out, and stay in control to not let things get out of hand.

I’m sure you all know what she really meant. I was sheltered and naive…that’s my excuse story.

My mom-in-law had a great sense of humor and was also able to laugh at herself for her missteps. One memory my husband and I both have which still makes us laugh when we think about it, is when we were fortunate enough to travel with his parents to Bahama’s.

We were on our way to an excursion to swim with the dolphins. On the boat, in the middle of the ocean, we spotted four dolphins, jumping out of the water and diving back in, all in sync. It was quite beautiful to watch.

My mom-in-law turned to us and other passengers and asked, “I wonder how they trained the dolphins to do that? I mean, look, they are putting on a show for us and there’s no trainer around.” 

There are so many wonderful memories stored in my mind, and in my personal journal of both mom’s. I hope to someday get them all sorted out into a book to share with family.

To all the women who have touched a child’s life;

have a wonderful MOTHER MONTH and wishing you many blessings all year round.