Like many kids, I think my mom is the best. She loves us unconditionally, she supports us in all (okay, most) that we do, and she is selfless in the way that society unfairly demands of those we deem worthy of being crowned with the mantle of “good” motherhood.
A few months ago, she walked into the kitchen with a giddy look of guilty glee lighting up her face. “Guess what I did?” she asks me. It’s an expression I can instantly picture her making when she was younger and it’s one of those moments, happening with increasing frequency as I get older, when I see her as a person, not simply Mom.