Gemini

If you were born on today’s date your astrological sign is Gemini, the Twins. Today was my mom’s birthday. She would have been 49 today. I haven’t really thought about it much, or about her much, lately. I remember a character in a movie whose mother had died, and she couldn’t remember what her mother’s hands had looked like. She panicked and started to frantically ransack her home looking for a picture of her mother’s hands. I remember my mom’s hands. They were very nice, shapely, and her fingernails were always well-kept but not fussy. She wore her wedding band on her left hand, and her star sapphire ring on her right.

Makes me think of Katie Nolan from the novel by Betty Smith, “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” Katie was a washwoman. She cleaned houses to keep her family fed and warm. Her hands were described by the narrator of the book, her daughter Francie, as red and cracked from the strong lye soap that she used to scrub the floors. Katie’s hands didn’t resemble my mother’s, much as her character didn’t resemble mom, either. Katie was practical to a fault; mom was given to occasional bouts of idealism. Mom never had any thoughts of climbing any social ladders; Katie always tried to get her children better things and better educations to be able to reach a higher status. Katie was the child of Austrian immigrants; no one knew how long ago my mom’s ancestors had come to America.

The obvious point I’m trying to make (and badly, I don’t mind admitting) is that Katie and my mom seem to have little in common, but they’re twins. Fraternal twins don’t resemble each other physically, but they often are uncannily similar in other ways. Katie fiercely loved her family; so did mom. Mom faced heartache and disease with amazing courage and fortitude; so did Katie. By the standards of her time, Katie had no education; neither did mom. Both were strikingly beautiful women. Both instilled in their children the importance of becoming a fully-formed individual.

Happy Birthday, Mom. I miss you.