The essay below was submitted to Boston Globe Magazine for consideration to be published as part of their Connections back page series. (650 word maximum).  

Unfortunately it was not picked.

But, I like it and mailed it to my Mom as part of Mother’s Day last year.

She liked it too 🙂

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My Mom has always had a good fastball.

She’s not a baseball pitcher.  Her fastballs are used in the game of life.

Being the 2^nd youngest of 7 kids meant having some crafty pitches to get through the days. However, there were times when she needed to just rear back and let ‘er rip.

Growing up during the 1940s & 50s in Boston’s Mission Hill meant there was not a lot of money saved for college.

But, she studied hard and got an academic scholarship to Faulker Hospital.  This would start an over 50 year career in Nursing.

Fastball – STRIKE!

At 3 years old, my father tragically passed away in a car accident.

What did she do after suddenly becoming a single mother of two adolescents?

Heal up, get more education, and turn her Faulkner Associates degree into a Northeastern University Bachelor’s degree.

Later on when I was 12, Mom saw the need for our education coming.  It was time to increase her earning power.

She did.

1988 saw me graduate from high school while Mom graduated from Boston University with a Master’s Degree in Nurse Management.

Fastball – STRIKE!

The life of a single mother is not easy.  You have to be two parents in one.

Though money was tight, my sister and I never wanted for anything.

With Mom’s love and tireless support, we grew up in a pretty affluent town – getting in before the real estate became unreachable for normal folks with modest incomes.

All we had to worry about as kids was succeeding at school, having fun, and maturing into functioning, well balanced humans.

Secondary education was a non-negotiable in our house.  It meant four years of college.

Eight years of tuition is not happening on a single income.

So mom, ever the forward thinker and opportunist, rented out the small extra bedroom in our house – mostly to college interns working in the next town.  Not a lottery winning, but enough cash to couple with small student loans to make college happen for us.

Fastball – STRIKE!

Fast forward to the Summer of 2018.

Mom made the decision to downsize to a small condo and sell the house we grew up in.

The house she lived in for 40 years.

I wondered if she had the fortitude to pack up four decades of accumulated life.

It was a daunting task to look at as a whole.  Like standing at the end of our driveway, shovels in hand, after the Blizzard of ‘78.

Photos, memories, impulse buys, clothes, dated furniture – there was a lot.  All my mom, sister, and myself could do was just start.

Every weekend during the summer my sister, myself, or both of us would show up to the old house and get after it.  Boxes were packed, trash bags were hauled away, and the next strategy of the exodus was considered.

It was a slow process – tortoise pace at best. But, there was Mom, carrying boxes up and down stairs, packing, sorting, and cleaning – alone, with one of us, and with both of us.

Her fastball was dialed in.  She was determined. This was going to happen.

During the process, I stepped back and watched my 74 year old mother make the large and imposing, small and manageable.

Single motherhood, graduate degrees, downsizing the homestead – Mom is a doer, a task completer, a goal reacher.  She’s been teaching me and my sister this without words our whole lives.

This was just the latest lesson.

She has shown us focus and grit.

She has shown us how to get through the tough innings of life.

By Christmas we were sipping coffee in Mom’s lovely new condo on the other side of town. All the downsizing complete and the old house sold for a tidy profit.

All I could think was –

Another fastball.

STRIKE!