Happy Birthday to my Mami.

Today is my mom's 57th birthday. I remember her telling me that she visited my sister's middle school math classroom the other day and the kids all couldn't believe she was Mrs. D.'s mom - too young!. The kids, like typical students believe all teachers are old by virtue of being teachers and my mom graduated to antique relic by association.



Technically today is my mother's true yet unofficial birthday. Huh? Well see I'm going to give you a peek into that little island I call my country of origin - Dominican Republic. When my mom was born, in an outlying town, all births had to be registered in the capital a few hours away. It took my grandfather a couple of days to make it into the city and apparently they didn't just take a person's word that their kid was born on a certain day.

My mom has always been the looker, an intelligent, elegant woman. Here on her wedding day in 1976.




She was close to my paternal grandmother (seen here with mom on the right, me in mom's arms) from working together at the national lottery. In fact, word is that when my parents split up while boyfriend and girlfriend my grandmother told my dad, "L. split up with you not with me. She'll be visiting me at the house whether you like it or not." My grandmother passed away when I was a year old but I have a feeling I would have liked her too.




My mom has always been a hard worker, overachiever and loving person very proud of her family - what she says is her greatest accomplishment. She's generous, and loyal to a fault. She tells people all about her kids and how proud she is of us but everything I've learned, I learned from a loving mom. A Happy Birthday wish for my mom and that she gets a moment to put up her feet and enjoy the company. Love ya mami.