We'll Always Have Paris-I Love You Mom!

From the Archives-7/30/2009 which was Mom's 78th Birthday. I'm sharing this and another post from the archives with you today on this Mother's Day of 2019. A lot has happened since I wrote this post, but it so wonderfully expresses me and Mom. We did have our challenges. I will always love her and have held her close in my heart ever since her passing in 2016. To you Mom, on this Mother's Day. Love, Laury

July 30, 2009-You already know quite a bit about my Mom, Helen Bourgeois.  You know she loves her garden, just about every kind of flower imaginable, collectibles, the moon, dolls and me (but maybe not my overalls!).

 

 

Today I celebrate my Mom on her 78th birthday!  I've already sent my card from France and a little special package.  When we talked on the phone the other day she said: "You shouldn't have sent a present, you know birthdays just aren't that important anymore, they're just like any other day."  I disagreed then, and realized today as I sat down to write this piece that birthdays are MORE important as our parents get older. 

 

Each birthday marks another year that we've been lucky enough to still have them both with us, and I'm hoping to be celebrating many more!

Being the oldest child, and a daughter, I am a lot like my Mom.  We're both very outgoing, people persons, and we care deeply about what happens to others. If you call their house when I'm home answering the phone, most people think I'm her or she's me.

I remember my Mom always being busy...cooking, cleaning, sewing, making incredible, cookies, deserts and pastries.  Dinner was always on the table at exactly 5:30pm when we were growing up so that we could all eat together shortly after Dad came home from work.  Mom had also sewn full wardrobes of clothes for each of my dolls.  As you can see from the photo on the right, there were quite a few.  It was those teenie tiny waisted Barbie Doll clothes that were the most shocking to see-Barbie had a perfect trousseau made by Mom...wedding dress, sun dress, suits, coats, fur capes, you name it!  My dolls had the best!  I used to tease that they were better dressed than I was, but that wasn't true!  Mom taught me how to sew, and I made all my own clothes pretty much up until I moved to New Orleans to go to graduate school.  She tried to teach me how to cook, but gave up the day that the spatula got stuck in the beaters and went gaily round and round crunching away before she turned the mixer off!  

One of our most memorable times, was in 1996 when we went to Paris together.  Mom and Dad had been able to travel together quite a bit previously, but never made it to Paris.  Dad kept saying: "Take your mother to Paris, Laury!" When we finally went, I discovered that Mom and I travel very well together. We both like to walk, shop, and see the sights. Eating is okay, but who needs to eat when you're gazing at the Moulin Rouge, wandering through St. Eustache, winding your way through the Louvre or taking so many photos when you ride the Bateaux Mouches that the Eiffel Tower is screaming STOP! 

We had a week together, before I watched her get on the bus to the airport as I was heading to the Gare d'Austerlitz to catch my train to Barcelona. I don't think there was a dry eye between us!

My most poignant moment with my Mom happened early one morning at their kitchen table in July of 2007.  My planned two week trip to the states that May, crumbled when I arrived in New Orleans. 

 

Suffice it to say, my two week trip turned in to a two month trip from hell and back again.  Mom found me crying in the kitchen.  She came over and hugged me and just let me cry, while she told me how proud she and Dad were of me and how I had handled everything all by myself.  I wasn't feeling very strong or competent, so her love and support (Dad's too) meant more to me than she could have known at the time!

So today I celebrate my Mom.  I love her graduation picture and the picture of the two of us digging in the rocks at Nannie and Papa's out in the country.  I look at that picture and cherish that one on one time with her, that you can see was shortly before my brother Jim was born.  You had to see the dolls, because each and every one of them came back from New Orleans with me after the storm.  Mom turned the house into a doll hospital and beauty parlor and got everybody back to their beautiful pre-storm selves.  I've been trying my new photo treatment out on other shots, so flowers for my Mom on her birthday...my very perfect French sunflower is a nice match to Mom's St. Louis iris from her garden.  I love you and miss you Mom-Happy Happy Birthday!-Love, Laury, Dali and Sam

 

Comments

[Laury Bourgeois]

The Barbie wedding trousseau couldn't have found a better home, or two little girls I love more than Chloe and Clare! Did you know that Barbie actually turned 50 recently? (hmm-read it in my AARP Magazine!)

[Kate Gundersen]

Such a nice post about your mom, and I love the photo. As the recipient of the Barbie wedding trousseau, I can vouch for her nimble fingers and her obvious love for you, demonstrated by her willingness to make numerous tiny and glamorous outfits, equipped w/ tiny snaps and matching accessories!

[Laury Bourgeois]

You are family, Mike! With me so far away, it gives me a "good feeling" to know that you are so close that you can see those curtains open and the TV on! Visits with you and Drew are always a special treat-whether it's across the street or across the ocean here with us in France!

[Michel Kelly]

I can not resist a post on this topic. I am the fortunate "across the street neighbor of Helen and Larry Bourgeois" in St. Louis.

The Bourgeois' nearby presence and hospitality have given me great pleasure and friendship over the past 16 years!

Helen protectively looks out for all within view of her home. When I visit the Bourgeois', it feels like family. When I glance across the street and see the living room curtains open and the TV on, I know Helen and Larry are doing fine, and that gives me a good feeling.

Happy Birthday Helen! Any many more!