I have two moms. Extraordinarily they are both named ‘Katherine’, only one actually spelled it “Kathryn”. My adopting mother, Katherine, passed on some years ago to the great Department of Pre-Columbian Studies in the sky. I’m certain she’s savoring spicy hot cacao with real Aztecs, Mayans, Olmecs and Toltecs. They’re discussing how the Nazca Lines were made in languages that haven’t been heard in thousands of years. Heck she’s probably talking to the very people who made the Nazca lines! Anthropologist’s Heaven. This would please her very much.

We always used to say that Mom had been a Mayan or some such in a past life. She used to have dreams of being chased barefoot into the jungle by Europeans. She was the first person to explain to me what the Colonialists really did to the indigenous peoples they “discovered”.

I can picture her now wearing a cape of brightly colored feathers from birds long since extinct, twirling her skirts, dancing barefoot to flute music and having A BALL!

My biological mother Kathryn Garfinkel should be about 63 now. I wish I knew as much about her as the other Katherine, but alas we parted when I was brand new. Wherever she is she should know that her red-headed baby girl is doing just fine… and misses her… and hopes she has found a good life… Especailly on Mother’s Day.