Thursday
Sep022010
19 Years of loving you
September 2, 2010 
It's your birthday again. You start it of at midnight, in the pub, with your friends. After all you are an adult now.
You can do whatever you want, without asking permission or approval from us. You could rob a bank, or buy a yacht and disappear on the horizon forever, or move to Timbuktu, or start a harem of gorgeous dark-haired and brown-eyed women all madly in love with you. You could even marry a princess and make blue-blooded babies, built a weapon of mass destruction, invent a cure for cancer, establish world peace, prevent the Martians from attacking, be a stand-up comedian (oh wait, you already are!), cut of your ear and paint sunflowers with it, and write some new best-selling novels on wizards or werewolves.
You can do all of that without our help or guidance....
In December 1990, being already very much pregnant with you, I was admitted to the hospital with a double pneumonia and, at that stage, was only suspecting your presence. The long specialist wanted to give me tetracycline, to beat the pneumonia quickly, so I would be back on my feet in no time. I protested and told her that I might be expecting as I had missed a period after my recent miscarriage, 5 weeks earlier. She laughed and told me that was as good as impossible so soon after a miscarriage. As I persisted in refusing all medication, telling her that I was the one of us that DID have sex and she had to do something or I would simply die on her, she agreed to a blood test after all. And there was the proof. HCG hormones all over the place, very, very pregnant. Medication was considered that would not do my baby harm, and I was so happy that I had been able to protect you already!
We hope the path we have drawn for you, and the sea we sailed together with you, was the right one so far. We hope you will continue to be the fine, empathic and really funny young man you have developed into. We wish for your dreams to come true, for your happiness to grow consistently, and for your love to spread around your world. We don't expect you to do great wide scaled things like Gandhi or great, but narrower scaled meaningful things like Majoor Bosschardt. But we expect you to be great in being you, which is more than enough to make a difference. Please make the right decisions for yourself, but always bare others in mind with everything you do. You go ahead, sail your own sea, fly your own flight!! Whatever choices you make, we are so very proud of you!!
Oh, and if you rob that bank, I promise you we won't tell anyone, if you buy us a little farm on top of a cliff in Ireland.
Mom.
Reader Comments (13)
Great motherly love this sends out, I love the photo as well, combines good with the words.
lovely lovely post! i rather hope he robs a bank and buys you a gorgeous farm on the top of a cliff (well no probably not such a good idea :). he sounds like a wonderful young man!!
Happy Birthday to your son..and to you - because the day we have our first child is the day we are born as 'mothers'!! Wishing him health and happiness...and a long life.
What a wonderful tribute to your son's turning 19!!!
Happy birthday to your son and you. lovely post and great shot
lovely, and happy birthday. i too ended up pregnant immediately after a miscarriage and i remember very well my doctor laughing at me.
Mothers just know these things, Marion, which is the beauty of this post for me. Mother's know. Here's to 19 years of knowing and watching him grow into what he is today. Hip-hip-hooray.
I adore this image! To my eyes, it symbolizes the independence of your son while still surrounded by the love of family and friends. I hope your son enjoys a very, very happy birthday!
Marion, what beautiful and heartfelt words from a proud mama. Happy birthday to your son, he sounds like a very enjoyable young man!
The photo is just perfect.
Happy Birthday to your boy. He is so lucky to have unconditional love from you. I love the image of the two boats moored to the dock and the little boat in the middle ready to take a running launch into the wide open!
Though I can't say it from a mother's viewpoint as a proud father of two and grandfather of four I can echo these beautiful words.
We can only help them launch the boat, they must pull the oars and/or find the wind to fill the sails.
A lovely post, Marion, in honor of your son's birthday. How quickly they grow up and leave the nest...or in this case, launch their boat. I love reading the other comments, especially Sue's and Robert's. Now...I wouldn't really advise the bank robbery... :)
"We hope the path we have drawn for you, and the sea we sailed together with you, was the right one so far."
Lovely...brought tears to my eyes, and all the same wishes to my son who has just graduated college and found his first "real" job...
Such a beautiful way to set them free, I love what you wrote here.
What incredible words of love and celebration. I just want to cry, thinking about my own son. I will read these words again when he becomes 19.