Para Bella Madre Mia

Happy Mother's Day!

We look nothing alike but there's still no denying I'm your daughter.

You gave me your asthma and your temper, but I would much rather have inherited your infectious enthusiasm, your verve for life, your shameless propensity for breaking out into song and dance in the middle of supermarkets and shopping malls, or on boats en route to distant islands, while puzzled fishermen paddled us to shore.

Tonight, in my car, on the way home, we sang "It's Too Late" at the top of our lungs. Carole King would have been proud, though passing pedestrians gave us strange looks. We soldiered on, without much regard for pitch or scale, so by the end of the song, we were very nearly out of breath.

Life with you is like that, mother, and I really wouldn't want it any other way.