Jessica Schein

Today is my mom’s 70th birthday. Because she is very special to me, I have decided to write a public thank you to the woman who is largely responsible for who I’ve become. 

So, mom, here are just a few of the many reasons I’m grateful for you:

• Inspiring me: You got your GED later in life and graduated from college in 1995 when you were in your 50s. I am glad I got to see you in your cap and gown, though I’m sure at the time my cranky 15-year-old ways made it seem otherwise. Watching you turn your tassel showed me that it’s never too late to fulfill a life dream. 
• Exposing me to the arts: The many galleries and museums you dragged me to when I was a kid made me appreciate the arts and the tremendous talents of others at an early age. I owe what creativity I have to you and these outings, especially.
• Showing me how to be treated: You left home at 16, an age that seems so, so young to me now, because your mother and stepfather didn’t take care of you. You’ve never let people treat you poorly, and now I won’t either. Watching you stick up for yourself showed me I should also speak up for myself.
• Nurturing my independence: While visiting you during your Parisian summer when I was 13 I fell in love with Europe, but more importantly, I saw how well you adapted to new surroundings and I wanted to try doing so too. Without witnessing this I wouldn’t have been able to move to London, twice, or Seattle. 
• Taking care of me: Every single time I got sick as a kid, and for a while I swear I had something every month, you wholly put yourself aside to make me get better fast—and introduced me to the illin’ tradition I treasure: eating gummy cherries.
• Playing with my hair: It still comforts me. I’m 32 and stuck my head in your lap just a few weeks ago when you were visiting. I’ll probably be doing it at 42.
• Supporting me: From my first hope of being a meter maid, to my interest in marketing, teaching, and briefly veterinary medicine, you never once let on that I couldn’t do what I wanted even though, for the latter especially, I have never been able to stand the sight of blood. 

What all of the above really reflect is how you raised me in general. You came from a tough family and experienced a lot of hardships that are easy to repeat when bringing up a child of your own. But you didn’t. So thank you for breaking a bad mold and doing the best you could with me—especially since I had a perma-sneer during what must have seemed like some very long teen years.

I love you. 

Love,

The former “Bucked-Mouth Gooney Bird”

(Also, thanks for the braces, which allowed me to put this awful nickname behind me)