Favorite Son

Last week, I was visiting my mother.  We were having a, sort of, last lunch together. See, I was leaving for the beach the next day and then, the following week, the day after I was to return, she was leaving for Italy.  So we wouldn’t be in the same vicinity for 3 weeks.  She had made a lovely turkey salad (like chicken salad…but with turkey) and we ate sandwiches and chatted a bit.  Then my younger brother Bryan calls.  When he realized I was there, he asked for me to get on the phone.  His family and mine were going to the beach together and he had a quick question or two regarding a detail or two about the trip.  After we cleared up whatever it was we had to clear up, we said goodbye and hung up.

A couple of minutes later, he called back and said, “Hey, since we’re leaving tomorrow and Mom’s leaving next week, we should ask her who her favorite is.”  I, of course said, “I am confident in her answer, and don’t have to ask.”  And Bryan and I both chuckled at my clever repartee.  But Mom overheard what I was saying and figured out what he was asking.  She, quite neutrally said “whoever is here at the time is my favorite.”  Bryan and I both got a kick out of that.  But, just for the record, I was her favorite at that very moment.  I am the oldest at 43, and Bryan is 3 years my junior.  So, for at least 3 years in the late 60’s I was her favorite, constantly.

A few years ago, my mother remarried, a man named Don.  So, whenever we’re going to see my mother and her husband, we go to see Mom and Don not Mom and Dad.  Eh, close enough…works for me.  Don and I have, over the last many years, connected on many subjects from politics to religion.  And he loves my mother, so he’s cool in my book.

Anyway, Don has two children and one of them is Mike, a delightful man, a few years older than myself, who is in a long-term, committed relationship with a super nice guy named Chris.  Mike and Chris love to entertain and include my mother in their entertaining.  To top it off, Mike is also a fantastic cook.  They also love to travel and a few years ago, invited Mom and Don to Germany with them.  This was my mother’s first trip to Europe and I couldn’t have been more thrilled for her.  I certainly wish it could have been me taking her, but I felt not one iota of jealousy.  I was just happy for her.  Sincerely.

It was, as European vacations go, an inexpensive trip using accumulated air miles and hotel discounts etc…but Mike is the one that made it happen, for sure.  Not that the amount of money spent on the trip mattered, but Mom pointed this out to me, perhaps as a way to downplay what she may have, at one time, thought was an extravagance.

So, again, this year, Mike invites Mom and Don to Italy with them.  So now, my mother is getting to see Italy.  This makes me nothing but happy.  Wow.  Mom is seeing the world.  And it is because of her stepson Mike.  That’s awesome.  Mike is awesome.  Again, I am nothing but happy about this.  Sincerely.

OK, so Bryan and I are at the beach, Ocean City, Maryland, by the way, and he and I are hanging out talking about Mom’s trip and my wife Amy joins us and then she’s talking about Mike and Chris and how much fun Mike and Chris are.  And then we tell her about the phone conversation we had at Mom’s before we left for the beach and she says jokingly, “So who is your mom’s favorite son?”

And I say, with a deadpan delivery that would’ve made Bob Newhart proud…

“It’s neither one of us.  I think it’s Mike.”

Bryan had tears streaming down his face, he was laughing so hard.

I should mention that I like Mike and Chris and Don very much.  Even though I feel a little too old to call Mike a stepbrother or Don a stepfather, I have begun to see them as family.

The globe-trotting, awesome food making, delightfully entertaining side of the family.