Happy Mother's Day To Charlotte (a.k.a. "The Scar")

My mom, with Lloyd, on our recent visit:



Mom, thanks for...

...lobbying the school administration to let me in to 1st grade after I failed the test to get promoted from kindergarten.
...a happy childhood in Bluff Park (which is aptly named and precisely the kind of place happy childhoods reside).
...doing whatever it took after Dad died. And I mean whatever.
...putting up with subpar grades in middle school, including the Mrs. Brooks fiasco.
...never saying anything bad about the girls I went out with in high school.
...for putting up with subpar grades in high school, including the Mrs. McWhorter debacle and the Mrs. Christian quagmire.
...for allowing the AC/DC to blare constantly with very few "turn-it-down" catcalls, and for the Bo Derek poster to stay up, and the KISS stickers all over the door.
...for all the baseball games you attended as a single mom, sitting with Mrs. Wood to cheer us on even though you didn't get it and had worked all day.
...for lining up that first job at the Green Valley Country Club so the interview was a slam-dunk, and then telling me (after six months) that I could only quit that job when I had another one secured.
...for seeking out the NASCAR pit-crew chief who went to our church to pick out and improve my first car: A 1977 Cutlass Supreme; paying for it and totally surprising me with it; and then making me buy everything else for it.
...for letting me switch churches my junior year in high school. It made such an incredible difference.
...for letting me go to the rival college than yours and paying for it.
...thanks for letting me change majors seven times and resigning yourself to that reality by saying, "Just get a degree, son." everytime I called to tell you.
...for not letting Wayne sit next to you at the wedding, but instead letting Charlie Mae.
...for skipping work and showing up at the hospital and not barking when the labor turned out to be 18 hours' worth.
...for keeping Kelsey the night we had Shelby, and then bringing her so she could meet her sister for the first time.
...for being a good grandmother and all that entails.
...for fighting a battle you'll eventually lose here, but ultimately win the war.

So, Mom, thanks for everything. Just felt like saying that on this particular Mother's Day.