Today is Mother’s Day in Costa Rica.
Mother’s Day is celebrated here on August 15th as it corresponds with the Roman Catholic feast day of The Assumption of Mary.
I have some favorite pictures I want to share today and a few cherished stories about my mother.
In this picture she was “being naughty” giving a good example of her “defiant devilish look” visiting us in Costa Rica, eating what she is not allowed to eat and drinking a beer (also not allowed by her doctors.) When I told her, “I’m gonna tell your Doctor” she made this face and said, “Good! I’ll send him the picture.”
She was an elegant, polished woman of her time (born in 1913 died on Christmas Day 1999)
but she had a sense of humor and a laugh that was contagious and sometimes outrageous:)
She, many times, could not control herself in places where laughter would be seriously frowned upon,
like at funerals, museum tours, town meetings, religious services,conferences or places, where laughter had no place. She would get that devilish look in her eyes and I knew she was losing control and laughter was about to burst out of her making it impossible for me or anyone near her, to keep a straight face and before we knew it, we were leaving funerals, solemn ceremonies, graduations. religious services and museum tours, anywhere… where you could not laugh… and we were crying, tears running down our cheeks hysterically laughing and on the way out the door as quickly as possible:)
My mother hired a private photographer to take a picture of herself, me, my daughter and her son, a four generation picture to treasure forever before we left to return to Costa Rica.
He came to the house and set us up on the living room couch and something so simple turned into his nightmare and our best memories, because every time he was about to snap the shot, my mother would smirk, she would make this face like her eyes were going to pop out and my daughter & I thought, “here she goes…” and there she went in a big full guffaw simultaneously saying “Oh sorry.. not sure what got into me,” (but we knew haha) and this happened so many times, that the photographer was becoming frustrated and a little cranky. It began to seem even funnier to us to try and stay straight-faced.
I’m sure you’ve been there;)
Get back!! She’s about to blow… here she goes!!
Now both my daughter and I got up to try and compose ourselves. but there was no hope for my mother!!
The Four-Generation Picture
My grandson would laugh along with all of us, (it was impossible to not fall into this laughing spell) and well it took hours to finally get a shot where we all looked composed and serious🙂 but really, I think we all looked like posed wax dummies:) Look at those forced controlled faces!!
My mother is grinding her teeth!!
The serious look was never really part of her. She had an incredible adolescent spirit that even at 85, was very much intact and apparent. We laughed so many times, so many places, under so many circumstances, that these moments are some of the best memories I have of her today.
She’d probably kill me if she knew these pictures of her were circulating on the internet..🙄 but today, August 15th, Mother’s Day in Costa Rica, I honor her memory, her sense of humor, her generosity. her spirit and her unconditional love for her little family. Happy Mother’s Day Mom…oh how we miss doing this with you. ❤️
I hope she is aware this gene has passed all the way down… to the grandchildren…: and the great grandchildren)
Digital Rabbit Hole 