Mother's Love

This is my great-grandmother, Anna Grace Wood Barnum Condit, in 1918 (below). She was in her early 50's, and she is holding my mother, Edna, when she was just a few months old. One my mother's favorite memories of her grandmother was helping to wash fresh spinach in the stone sink in the laundry room. Little Edna stood on a stool and plunged her arms up and down in the cold water to rinse off the grit from the leaves. She loved feeling useful and helping her Nana.

I doubt her Nana needed the help; she was a wealthy woman with a full household staff to do the chores. So it says something to me about motherly love, that this rather patrician woman invented a "job" for her granddaughter to help her feel important and appreciated.

This is my mother, Edna Jr., being held by her mother, Edna Sr., on that same swing. I knew Edna Sr. very well; she was my favorite grandparent. My Nana was the embodiment of motherliness. She unconditionally loved my mom--her only child--and her four grandchildren:

This is my mother, Edna Jr., holding me. I'm only a few weeks old, the fourth of four children. I can see fatigue and pride in my mother's face:

This is me, with my first baby, Lovely Daughter #1. I was weak-kneed with sleep deprivation, but so happy to at last be a mom:

This is my mother, my Nana, and me, on the deck of a rented cabin in Malibu, California. I'm about 3 or 4 years old. There's so much love in this photo!:

Thank you, Mom, Nana, and Great-Grandmother Anna. I am so grateful for your love, and for showing me how to be a good mom.

Happy Mother's Day!