My mother is not alive for Mother’s Day, but I will think of her tomorrow. I do have a Mother-in-law, Maria’s sweet mother, Maria Gangi. Big Maria, as we call her, is a sweet and simple woman. She loves nothing more than to be with her family, watch her grand-children work their way through their lives. She turned 83 recently, and I see that she is changing.

When she visits us, she often likes to sit on the porch and stare out at the valley. She is a voracious reader, but I think it is hard for her to read sometimes.  It strikes me that this also what the animals on the farm – the dogs and donkeys especially – love to do. I often see them gazing out across the road, just like Big Maria was doing. I do not ask her what she is thinking. I think I know. And it is not my business. I never like it when somebody asks me what I am thinking. Too private, too personal. Big Maria came to her daughter’s art show, as she always does, and I could see it was difficult for her to stand up for long. Afterwards, I drove her home and she told me how happy she was to see Maria and I together, and how happy we both seemed together.

That meant a lot to me. Maria and her mother seemed especially close today, very connected.  I wish my mother could have seen it, too, but I am grateful to have at least one mother who did. And I decided to get out my 85 mm portrait lens and capture this mother on Mother’s day.