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Ryan’s Regards: Happy Mother’s Day

What will COVID-19 mean when it comes to celebrating the moms in our life?
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Columnist Ryan Uytdewilligen and his mother Kim sometime in the early 1990s. (Ryan Uytdewilligen/Langley Advance Times)

Looking back, Mother’s Day seemed to be more for me than it was for her.

I’d wake up early to make Mom breakfast, but the location for a nice dinner out or the movie we went to go see seemed to be my choice; even if Mom had led me to believe it was all her idea.

It’s going to be a very strange Mother’s Day this coming Sunday.

One of isolation, frustration, and perhaps even a little fear.

And I have tussled with those feelings for many Mays, as this will be the 10th Mother’s Day without my mother; she passed away at the age of 46 after a valiant fight with cancer.

I have her to thank for so much of my sense of humour and my crippling obsession with pop culture.

I often wonder what her take would be on COVID-19 and social distancing measures and what’s happening today in our world.

That’s the thing after they’re gone, is that every opinion about every little thing afterwards can only be speculated.

She passed away before online shopping took the globe by storm and I am absolutely positive she would have broke social distancing measures for a pair of shoes.

The hardest part is that in times of uncertainty and unprecedented pandemics, you must also speculate a fallen loved one’s advice and words of comfort too.

Now, most people will find themselves all in a similar boat for Mother’s Day 2020.

Many will not be able to pay a visit to their mom, with strained phone calls and Facetimes having to suffice.

READ MORE: Ryan’s Regards – Cut yourself some slack

The love and care that a mother gives – the very antidote to the frustrations and anxieties that COVID-19 has concocted – may not be available in person for the first time in many people’s lives.

And I know that can make these times all the worse.

But if nothing else comes from this, let the separation this Sunday during COVID-19 lead to a realization; time is precious.

Let weekly Sunday gatherings with the whole family make a welcome return when those who can be reunited, finally are.

Let those who still can take advantage of conversations together, ask those questions and learn everything they can possibly know so as little as possible is left to speculation.

Let us have seen that our families – our mothers – are what is important and what is at stake.

I miss my mom every day but rejoice in the short but wonderful time we were given together.

And it’s those small acts – as insignificant as they may seem like letting me pick the movie on her special day – that remain in my heart as the most cherished of memories and selfless of gestures.

So, even if you can’t physically see your mother on Sunday, know that a small act of love and appreciation will make the biggest of difference to her.

Thank you to all of the mother’s out there, from the ones caring for crabby kids under quarantine to the ones receiving care in retirement communities.

Happy Mothers Day Mom.

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Email: ryan.uytdewilligen@langleyadvancetimes.com

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