Mother’s Day During Lockdown

Today is Mother’s Day, it also happens to be the day I launch this Blog (genius, right?)

Mother’s Day obviously looks very different this year. Usually, it would be a day of last minute rushing around, yelling to get everyone out of the house on time, and a meal of most likely overpriced food at a restaurant that is too crowded.

While some of those things still happened this morning, we opted for a Socially Distant Mother’s Day Parking Lot Picnic. This included still yelling at my boys to get out of the house on time and last minute rushing around to get said overpriced food and fresh flowers.

We met at the World’s Fair Marina in Flushing Meadow Park. We sat on benches and had a quick and windy picnic. We maintained Social Distance most of the time, but when we had to get close, we wore masks. It was as good as it could get right now in NYC. It was nice and my Mom was over the moon, mostly due to being able to see her Grandson for the first time in weeks.

My brother and I also chose this day to unveil their 50th Wedding Anniversary present. We debated for months on what to do for this very rare milestone in their lives. It had to be big and had to be the gift of a lifetime. Finally, on one random Saturday afternoon, we jumped at the chance to book a trip to Paris for them. We planned a “unboxing” of this gift at a lunch at my parent’s favorite restaurant in Manhattan for March 15th, which just happened to be the very day our Mayor announced that all NYC schools would be closed due to COVID-19. Our lunch was obviously postponed to who knows when and our plans to make my Mother cry more than she had ever had in her life were out the window.

We debated many times in the coming weeks on what to do. Do we cancel the trip? Wait it out? Tell them? Don’t tell them? We had to tell them, but when? Now? July? We finally decided that Mother’s Day would be as good of a day as any other.

After our picnic, I asked my parents to sit in the trunk of my car (it’s a hatchback so no, Mother’s Day didn’t take a sick turn), so I could FaceTime my bro and SIL, so we could do this “together”.

Needless to say, my parents were floored. The dream trip they had planned but postponed a dozen times, was finally going to happen. Maybe. Damn COVID-19!

So that was our Mother’s Day. Different but still filled with love. I hope yours was as well, no matter how, or if, you celebrated.