Happy birthday Mother

The mother looked adoringly down at the new baby.  Her green eyes, not focusing yet, looked up and a bit of a smile spread across her baby face.  She held her mother's finger in a fierce grip.  The mother looked at the child and said, "I think that I'll call you Elizabeth for you have the presence of a strong Queen".

Elizabeth did grow strong.  Always slight, she ran and played in the old house and the surrounding countryside.  Often hiding from her younger sister, she would laugh with glee at how much quicker she was.  She loved books and baffled people with her intellect.  She could remember dates and the most intricate details of literature.

Away at college, her intellect was further fueled by so many choices.  She was fierce with her mind.  She knew Latin and French. She studied biology and made intricate drawings.  She pressed leaves into the pages of the books she read as if to make a bookmark of memories.

She graduated college and went back home.  There she met a handsome man who took her breath away.  She was already engaged but couldn't get her mind off the tall man who would ride on his horse to visit her at the school.  It wasn't long before Elizabeth decided that life with the tall handsome man was what she wanted.  She broke off her engagement without another thought.

Elizabeth and the handsome man were married.  They played cards with friends, went out on her father's yacht, built a sturdy house, had flower gardens and enjoyed their time together.  Eventually, a child was born to them.  He was a surprise in a way as they had decided not to have children.

But Elizabeth looked down into the green eyes of her baby and watched as his eyes tried to focus.  A smile came across his lips, and he reached out to grasp her finger.  He held fast to it.

Many years later, the boy-turned-man held onto her hand.  The hand was thin with the skin nearly transparent, brittle like paper.  The blue veins stood out.  She looked at him with the green eyes that were now milky with age.  She told him that he was the most important thing in her life.  He smiled back at her knowing that to be true. 

Happy birthday to my beloved mother Elizabeth who left this earth in 2005. I treasure your spirit and all that you gave to me.