How To Be the Best Mom Without Even Trying

Just have a few (well, you only need one) great friends like CG. I first met CG when our daughters were in elementary school and my daughter (Jessie) sat on her daughter (Rachel) in the play ground. (As you can see by the photos, some things don't change.) Somehow they became great (and I mean great in every sense of the word you can imagine) friends.

Rachel went off to university on the east coast this year, but is back now for the summer, working at one of those typical summer jobs we’ve all had to get us through school (stocking shelves and dealing with customers who alternate between being irate and effusive), and spending time just hanging out with friends.

Today, Rachel had planned an impromptu canoe/picnic—lugging her Dad’s red canoe over the fence near their house and into the canal and padding to the arboretum—with friends and CG convinced her to invite Jess, after we had worked out that I could drive Jess to meet them at the arboretum. The canoe part was a bit out of her (Jessie’s) league, although CG has great plans for getting her up to speed so we can do another camping trip (this time with the red canoe) together.

Jess called home on her cell after work and I told her to hurry home, as Rachel wanted her to go with them to the arboretum for a picnic. Silence on the other end of the phone. Then a burst of glee as she shouted “Mom! You are the BEST mom in the whole world!!!!!!! I’m going to text Rachel right now!”

Well, that was easy!

So off they went. An idyllic afternoon spent under the willows by a meandering river with a lunch prepared by CG, a copy of Twilight to be read aloud, water colours to paint with, and a camera to take pictures. Jess was in heaven, her joy almost palpable. Mine was perhaps subtler, but just as intense, as I watched them from atop the hill.

There are so many heartbreaking moments as our children grow up and away, sometimes away from the friends who have made their lives richer and more meaningful. To be included in a moment of random and spontaneous adventure, with friends, is not something that happens often for Jessie. And the times that it has happened has mostly been with the G’s, who have given her the gift of true friendship (which includes acceptance, shared joy, patience, a large measure of creative insanity, and the ability to listen (every now and then) to the Jonas Brothers).

As for CG, I can honestly say that SHE’S the best mom, and the best friend, in the whole world!

(Photos © Rachel Gray 2010)