Three Days Later

It’s three days after my birthday and I’m quietly reflecting on my mom’s birthday. Her birthday is today and she would have been 85. She was 17 when I was born, after her doctor told her she couldn’t give birth to any children. We proved him wrong that day.

My earliest memories of my mom are her and I drawing and coloring with crayons at the kitchen table when I was three years old. She taught me how to read and write at that table, too. I know I was three because that’s the year my second brother was born. That’s when we moved from our two-bedroom apartment to a house where my mom got us a cat, some tropical fish, and a parakeet. (That cat must have been licking its whiskers all the time.) That’s the house where I washed some of the windows with an oil rag from the garage and water from a mud puddle. My mom thanked me for helping her wash the windows, but to let her know the next time so we could use her special window cleaner.

She encouraged me to read to her. When I was 5, I read my favorite books and the news headlines and short articles from the newspaper to her. When I struggled to pronounce words, she had me sound them out. She was my first and best teacher.

The photo shown below shows her and I celebrating our birthdays together. I was 12 and she was 30. She baked and decorated the cakes. She had many talents, which she taught to me. I still enjoy cooking and baking my own meals.

One of my birthday gifts that year was a Kodak Instamatic camera. My mom showed me how to load film into it, and she taught me the basics of photography. The birthday photo below was taken by my dad with that camera.

I learned a lot from my mom, and a favorite pastime I learned from her is reading books. It began with children’s books and carried over to comic books into my teenager years and high school. My favorite comic book character was Peter Parker and his alter ego, Spider-Man. I once owned Amazing Fantasy, issue #15 of Amazing Adult Fantasy, August 1962, the first comic book that Spider-Man appeared in. My mom threw it away with all my other comic books when she redecorated my bedroom in 1978 while I was in the Navy. I was upset, but I never complained to her about the loss. I found a reprint later.

I started reading fantasy and horror stories when I was a teen. I enjoyed the genres—especially vampire stories (when they were still cool), and I bought a Stephen King paperback during the winter of 1976-’77 (if memory serves me right): ’Salem’s Lot. It will always be my favorite King book, because it was (IMHO) a great story. Plus, it reminded me of the old television series, Dark Shadows, which my mom watched and who started me watching when Barnabas Collins, the vampire, came into the story. She and I always liked watching spooky movies together, and the classic 1931 horror film Dracula starring Bela Lugosi was one of our favorite films to watch on TV during those “bad weather Saturdays.”

My mom encouraged me to draw and paint, and she bought some of my art when I held shows. Her living room was filled with my art. She kept a colored pencil drawing (shown below) from my high school years on her kitchen wall. It’s a very symbolic and surreal drawing, but she was proud of me and wanted others to see my talent. The kitchen was where she sat with guests—it was the most important room in our house.

I painted the beach pail (below) in her backyard one day while some of her grandchildren surrounded me to watch. I encouraged them to paint along with me. It was fun and my mom encouraged me to teach others. I began a summer workshop for children two years later, and taught workshops for adults a year later. I taught for fourteen years and had a wonderful time doing it.

My mom died nineteen years ago on June 8, after complications from surgery. She was 66. I held her hand when she died, said goodbye, and wept when I hugged her one last time. That night, I wrote a poem for her funeral: In Memory of My Mom. I still miss her and appreciate the wonderful memories I have of her.

Happy birthday, Mom.

That’s all for now. Thanks for joining me today.

Have a great day and enjoy your time with the ones you love.

Steve, 2/13/2024

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This post “Three Days Later” copyright © 2024 Steven Leo Campbell at stevecampbellcreations.com – All rights reserved.

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