Mother’s Day is a glorious day of celebration for many! For others the day is difficult. 

I’m a Mom of two fabulous adult kids and lucky to have a wonderful mother-in-law whom I love and admire. I have lots to be grateful for! However, for the last 12 Mother’s Days, I always wake up with a sadness in my heart that I don’t think will ever go away.

There are moments I still mourn her, but most days, it’s a sweet thought or memory that makes me smile. I don’t like to feel sad when I think about her but some days my heart tells me otherwise. I wrote about my Mom on Mother’s Day a couple of years ago but I have more to tell. I want to celebrate her again and share some fun and quirky traits that were part of her loving personality.

Adrienne Czuba. My Mom didn’t have a middle name. Although, she told me once she took her Grandmother’s name, Hedwig, as her confirmation name..and yup, as kids we were scolded when we made fun of our great-grandmother’s name. On a side note, for those who know I’m a big Harry Potter fan, Harry’s owl’s name is Hedwig. That makes her name super cool now!  

Her drink of choice? Black coffee! Even in the summer when the outside temperature was 98 degrees and steamy, she drank many cups of hot coffee every day, all day. Most people would grab a Tab or a Fago pop when eating hamburgers or making a roast for dinner, but not my Mom! She loved her black cup of joe!

Mom loved eating anything sweet. Candy, cookies, baked goods, you name it, she loved it. And the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I inherited her sugar gene. Every time she ate something sweet she had a habit of jiggling it back and forth as if removing the extra crumbs or powdered sugar from a pastry. To this day, our whole family calls it “shaking your sugar”..lol 

In her early 40’s Mom was one heck of a good Space Invaders player! When Santa brought us an Atari game system in the mid-1970s, she would watch me play. When I finally taught her how to use the Joystick, she killed it! I think she secretly practiced when I was at school and tried to show me up when we played a couple of games together in the afternoon.

Mom was very visual and on-trend, especially with decorating our house on Dartmouth Ave. From the Williamsburg era with brass candlesticks and Queen Ann style chairs to the mod wallpaper and orange and brown shag carpet, my Mom was super fashionable in home decor. She could have made a profession by being a florist. She made arranging flowers and making wreaths look easy.

Not only do I want to remember, but I want my kids to recall the nature of her character through her silly idiosyncrasies. For the last month, I have been jotting them down and some random memories as they pop into my head. 

-She was a great cook and made wholesome dinners for all 7 of us nightly.

-She was a night owl. 

– She loved to entertain and was so good at it! (a trait I did not inherit!)

-She went to Europe 3 or 4 times but never made it to Poland.

-She liked fad products, especially new cereal or candy.

-She had a green thumb. She had plants all over our back porch.

-Her stocking stuffers were the best! 

-On Friday, June 13, 1947, my Mom turned 13. 

-She used to watch Days Of Our Lives. I remember because that’s the theme song I heard when she put me down for a nap.

-She used to smoke Vantage Blue cigarettes.

-She had many magazine subscriptions.

-She used to iron my gym clothes. No lie.

-She liked Boy George.

-When she and my Dad went out on Saturday nights, I used to lay across their bed while she got ready and watched The Muppet Show. 

-Sunday nights were for watching The Wonderful World Of Disney and Mom always made popcorn. That was such a treat! 

-She loved tchotchkes. 

-She made strawberry jam every summer.

-She collected depression glass.

-She named me after Judy Garland and her good friend, Judy Morgano.

How about that dress, the wallpaper, the wood panel, and the red encyclopedia set in the picture?!

This was her. Adrienne Czuba. My Mom. She’s always with me and I know I’ll see her again…