Mother's Day Drabbles

Everyone’s Mom

After Michael moved out, Debbie started working the morning shift on Mother’s Day. It was an odd choice, but she knew many of her boys would be missing their own mothers and needed a friendly face.

Even though he was expected at dinner, Brian always came for breakfast and left a beautifully wrapped box for a tip. Every year, Debbie was surprised and touched by the cards tucked under plates, the single flowers handed over with a check, and the awkward hugs and kisses she received. She spent half her shift blinking back tears, but she never felt more loved.

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Closing Distance

Jennifer missed Justin more than imagined when he moved to New York. She couldn’t run into him when she visited Debbie at the diner or drop by the loft with cookies when she felt like baking.

The first Mother’s Day he was gone, she opened the package he sent and found a perfectly drawn sketch of her favorite picture of them together. With a trembling hand, she traced the lines of his laughing baby face, knowing how long it must have taken him to draw this. Seeing the joy he’d recognized in her eyes, Justin didn’t feel so far away.

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Taking It All In

Mother’s Day was chaos. JR was so excited about the presents she’s made in preschool, that instead of letting her mothers sleep in, like Gus said to, she woke them before six. Gus made breakfast, but he wouldn’t let them help, and he wasn’t allowed to use the stove so he served peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chocolate milk.

By noon, Melanie and Lindsay were exhausted, but they had stone handprints for the garden, new pictures for the fridge, and a poem about what great moms they were, and that was better than a few extra hours of sleep.

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