Thursday, July 02, 2009

Why "Mother Dear"?

I suppose it has crossed some of my readers' minds as to why I call my mother "Mother Dear."

Well, it's by request!

My brother and I always called her "Ma." On a trip to visit relatives in California, she discovered that our cousins called our Aunt "Mother Dear" and that's what she wanted for herself upon her return. Apparently she had always felt that "Ma" was uncaring and disrespectful. Interesting coming from someone that didn't really have any pretentiousness about her, having grown up poor on a small family farm.

So, "Mother Dear" it is! My brother still calls her "Ma" though. Hehe.

1 comment:

Greg said...

When I read "Ma", I hear Harvey Fierstein screaming at Anne Bancroft in "Torch Song". I love "Mother Dear" and thanks for the bit of history there (really that should be "herstory" in this case).

It's funny how our Mothers get these ideas late in life. Mum won't allow me to say the words "Elderly" or "Old" around her, even though she's 80 now. She prefers "Middle-Aged", which scares the shit out of me - can I really survive another 80 years of this? :D