This isn't about Egypt today. It is about my mother. You see it is her birthday, and I know that she is missing me. I miss her too. Although I am not able to be with her, I do think about her often. I especially remember and think about her today, on her birthday.

This is the woman who got me through high school English class, editing my papers so they were coherent and eventually made a writer of me. This is the same woman who taught all my brothers how to iron their own shirts--a feminist before her time. (She got fed up with their fussiness and decided that if they wanted the ironing done in a certain way they could just as well do it themselves.) This is the woman who, when my dad and us kids brought a goat home, milked her twice a day religiously--something we kids thought she would NEVER do. We drank the cold milk at the next meal and she made goat cheese of the leftover. This same woman planned all our family trips, packed us up and got us moving. I have such fond memories of all those trips. Between my mother's organization and my father's wonderlust we traveled a good part of the Europe as kids.

Mom is very up to date, especially when you consider her age. You cannot pry her computer away from her. She keeps in touch with family and friends via the internet, does her banking via the internet, downloads her beloved New York Times Crossword puzzle weekly, and is quite put out when things are running a bit slow. She loves to write and the word processor was a Godsend to her. It sped up the writing / revision time.

My mother is 89 today. She was born the year the women got the vote in the USA. Her doctor tells her that she will probably live to be 100. She isn't so sure. She is slowing down a bit these day. She has seen and experienced so much--so many phenomenal changes over the span of her life. I just hope that she has it down on paper or stored on her computer so we can all benefit from her life story. And I hope she has a very pleasant birthday today. I love her.