**Giggles!**

[i]With Mother's Day finally here for 2024, I cannot help but to be a bit depressed and very nostalgic to say the least. Mom and I had a hard relationship and love, at times, could seem mercurial, very much like my Mom's moods. A while back after Mom's passing, my Big Sister and I hashed out a ton of baggage between us. My Big Sister was and has always been the problem child on crank when it came to problems. With it her drinking and drug problems, my Big ig Sister was in trouble with the law and she would tell me over and over again that "It's my life and it effects no one around me! So stay the hell out of my life!" It was that night that I told my Big Sister of my concerns and she went into this routine again, but, as the night went on, she gave me some context that I knew on some level, but never did the math to get the full picture. Mom suffered from a lot of psychological problems and anxiety attacks that made her hard to deal with. Now, I had always thought it was me and my inability to make her happy, so I would work harder. And that was probably why I was taking high blood pressure in high school. Now, this sort of madness managed to forge an iron will that I was always dazzled with as a kid and she ended up raising my Big Sister and myself to be reasonably good people. I am myself and my Big Sister is her own lady, just as Mom raised us. For better or for worse. ❤️

While sitting there with my Big Sister, she did her shot of booze and then took an inhale off of the joint she was smoking to settle her nerves after dealing with Mom's passing, Pop's grief on top of her own, and the rest of us. She told me flatly about things were as I had sad earlier, but here's where things changed a bit ... "Mom's love was always unconditional, honey!" and I have to agree with that. No matter what was happening, Mom did her best to be there for us, even with deadlines with her Historical Romances, meeting with agents, guest who might stop by the house, or even with the husband or the cats and the beagles. And then, she would always step up and hug us, letting us know how important we are.

"We are the inheritors of that love, honey," is what I told my Big Sister and I hugged her, promising I would try to understand both my Mom and my Big Sister better. It takes a lot of work to do that for both these days, especially when my Big Sister calls up and in a frantic-panic state of her depression, magnified by the alcohol and marijuana. "We're doing a family get-together in Brunswick over with the kids and we'd like you to come." That's when I get told that the WHOLE Brunswick crew will be there, including her ex-husband and his family. I swear I could hear my Mom's laughter! ❤️

For Taffy, her Mom's been very much like mine, savor the superpowers, though I always thought of her being larger than life. And that is Hypatia Vincent-Verdeschi! Currently running around town at nine feet tall and having to have things like her sportswear that she races around downtown in highly modified to handle her awesome physical strength and weight. Thanks to her adventuring as a superheroine and adventures on "The Flip Side!" as she's hinted at doing a few times, Hypatia is a goddess in her own right and still loves her daughter, Taffy, and her daughter-in-law, Caitlynn as if she were her own. ❤️

So, Happy Mother's Day, Mom! ❤️

This wonderful piece was done a good while back by the super-talented and groovy friend and artist,  Kurama-chan Enjoy! ❤️