Mother’s Day really doesn’t need to exist as far as I am concerned. Being a mother is a reward in itself. It needs no special day or presents. First there is the incredible feeling of holding your newborn baby in your arms. [Pause here to think of the magnitude of that experience.]
Soon after my daughter Lynne Astrid Karppi was born at New York University Hospital, I was walking down the street in Great Neck Terrace, where we were living. I was pushing the beautiful baby carriage my mother had bought for her. It was navy blue and wood and steel with a fold-down hood, and a cover in case of rain and a fabulous blanket she had knitted for her only grandchild.
As I walked along on that shiny fall day, I spotted a car parked on the side of the road. Inside was a mother and her adult daughter talking and I had a unique experience, a feeling of oneness between those two strangers and myself.
I had never felt that way before. In family gatherings I always sought out the men to be with and talk to because they talked about things I found interesting.
Actually the one time I called a sorority sister to ask her about using a washing machine to clean the baby’s clothes, she broke out laughing. “I never thought I would hear you ask about laundry,” she said.
Me too… It was a new experience. I wanted the baby and didn’t know about what came along with her. It was a wonderful experience and life changing in that I begin to put my own life’s beginnings into perspective, moving the index cards around — just the way I did when writing papers in college.
Did I ever tell you I loved having to write term papers? I used to eagerly go to the college library with index cards in hand, and research three ideas to decide which topic to write about. The topic would find itself. The more index cards, the better the topic. The more you learn, the better life becomes. “Knowledge is power,” was my school, Julia Richman High School’s motto.
– DFK
