Happy Birthday, Mom

Today is my mom's birthday and my first one without her. Yes she shared it with President Lincoln, which never escaped me. Growing up with a strong, smart woman who had five girls and no boys and a husband mostly away working, was my good fortune, whether I realized it at the time or not. Today, I credit her for setting me on my path, and making me realize my dreams and passions. Even if she was a lousy cook. 

I remember sitting at the kitchen table in our 1970's suburban home in Cincinnati. She was across the way, cigarette in hand, at the little built-in desk where she set up camp at night.  It was neat and tidy with stacks of bills, her checkbook and her gold laminate address/phone book. The mustard colored phone hung on the wall beside it. I was probably in college and home for a break or the summer. I was reading the classifieds and noticed a job for a food editor at Better Homes & Gardens Magazine. "This is what I want to do" I exclaimed, as I circled the ad. I don't remember what she said, or if she said anything, but its a defining moment for me, because indeed, it's what I ended up doing with my life, starting with a job at Cooking Light Magazine in 1989. Moves, job changes and the overseas travel I did, wasn't always easy for her. "You're going to China, you'll miss Eddie's graduation...going to Israel, what on earth for... You're going to work where?" but she wasn't necessarily an easy person and somehow that seemed fitting. If she had lived in a different generation I believe it's what she would have done--travelled, nurtured her career and galavanted around the country.

By the time I started Edible Nashville 4 years ago, she was old enough to not totally understand the gravity or risk of it, nor did she need to. By the time she was in her late eighties, certain things were best left unsaid, lest she worry. I feel that she is with me every day looking down with proud eyes at my crazy home office, the food I cook, the magazine I produce and the path I chose. Happy Birthday Mom.