still speaking to you

Beloved MomToday is the first Mother’s Day since your unexpected departure. For the first time in my life, I don’t get to say “I love you” out loud and spoil you with silly, mismatched gifts that always made you smile more than anything else.I keep catching myself thinking I must tell you something — a headline, a change in the weather, some small absurdity of daily life. It still feels as if you’re just a message away, ready to give us the full bulletin. You were our mobile newspaper, after all. The world made more sense when filtered through you.And the world, as you would have noticed immediately, has not calmed down in your absence.We’ve had an abundant rainy season. Since January, the storms have come hard and fast — floods, level 8 warnings, skies that seemed determined to empty themselves completely. At times, it felt endless, as though the earth itself was grieving alongside us.Then, almost overnight, winter arrived.The rain pulled away toward the Cape, where it now lashes…