If you’re a birthmother, Mother’s Day is different. Really different.

Tobias Wolff, author of This Boy’s Life, has this to say about his mother:
“In her life she didn’t get anything right, except one thing, and that was love. After reading This Boy’s Life she said: ‘ I’m glad you didn’t tidy me up and turn me into someone I wasn’t. That would have meant that I hadn’t been of any use to you as a mother.’ “

Giving birth to my son at 17 and giving him up, I have to admit I didn’t get much right. But I loved him. That story is not a tidy one. Hallmark doesn’t have a card big enough, wide enough, or ragged enough to cover all that.

But anyway, Happy Mother’s Day. You know who you are.