Mother's Day

 

May 13, 2018  

Today I’m not internally demanding that I hear from my children today. K got hers in yesterday. It was such a gift to experience the expanded version of Baby Soul Jam. Hundreds of families partying in community.    The activism of Kido and Mama Fresh – creating family activities on the southside. I sat with Mother and we watched over Noni. When Faraz got there, he used Mother as home base while he explored the scene under his father’s watchful eye. After the event we had family brunch downstairs at Promontory’s restaurant. 

Mother still expected to go out to eat on the actual day of Mother’s Day, but asked that I wait until after her gift for me was delivered.  By mid-afternoon we headed out and ate at a Chinatown restaurant before going to the Goodman to see “Having Our Say.” I was underwhelmed by the show, then a bit miffed when, during intermission, Mother nonchalantly mentioned that she had seen it before. 

As we began our journey home, I turned on WDCB and heard my sitar on the car radio. It was Dee Alexander playing “Naikwa” on her jazz show. I teared up as I listened to the song that Vandy Harris wrote when my daughter Naikwa was born, then played at her funeral twenty years later. Mother turned to me and said, “Happy Mother’s Day.” Indeed.

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