It’s a memory Diane Berry laughs about every Mother’s Day.
“All three of the kids made me breakfast in bed,” Berry said of that particular Mother’s Day about 22 years ago. “The eggs were burned; the coffee was really, really strong.”
They’d left the toast in the toaster too long, and they’d picked a handful of weeds to put in a vase.
But she ate every bit of it, and they still talk about it to this day.
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Moms around the area hold special memories for their day.
Julie Sammons said she celebrated her first Mother’s Day 34 years ago in the hospital with her newborn daughter, Lauren.
“A fire alarm went off,” she said.
She panicked when she found out there was a “little fire in the nursery,” but all turned out well. Another favorite memory occurred a few days before Mother’s Day in 2013.
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Her daughter, Savannah, had been living in Alaska when Sammons got a strange call from her ex-husband, who said he wanted to drop something by her office.
“He comes walking in, and Savannah was behind him. I just boo-hooed,” she said.
It was a great Mother’s Day together.
Mother of five, Audrey Ateca said her children had an annual ritual. Her husband, Tony, would take them to the grocery store on Saturday. They’d buy provisions for the morning breakfast. She wasn’t allowed to look in the refrigerator because the menu was a secret.
“It was really sweet,” she said. “Tony would help them cook.”
The table would be set with the fine china, and it was a special meal.
For many years, Mother’s Day was hard for Kathleen Spratley, who struggled with unexplained infertility issues.
“I just focused on other people,” she said.
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She’ll never forget her first Mother’s Day after her daughter, Morgan, was born. She’s 17 now and set to graduate high school in a couple of weeks.
While she’d gotten flowers and cards in her life, there was nothing quite like having those flowers and that card, she said.
The mother of three captured a moment in time with a special keepsake in 2014 with the handprints of her daughters on paper. She later replicated the idea in concrete a few years later with the entire family.
Rick, Kathleen, Morgan, Kassidy and Aislinn Spratley’s handprints made a unique marker. Courtesy photo.
Like Spratley, Ateca understands bittersweet feelings on Mother’s Day.
She lost her mother six years ago after a long battle with dementia.
“I find I miss her the most on Mother’s Day,” she said.
Her mother loved holidays and family gatherings.
And one of the most meaningful of all Mother’s Day gifts Ateca said she received didn’t come from a family member at all.
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Her mother had died in September. The following Mother’s Day, someone Ateca volunteered with at the Aiken Community Theatre sent her a card.
“She said she remembered the first Mother’s Day after her mother had died,” she said. “It was really, really touching.”
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com.
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