Making Cakes with Mom

There are a lot of challenges in caring for someone who struggles deeply with addiction. One of the more painful are the unfulfilled promises. Over the past four years it has made me so angry when mom would promise my children something that I knew would never happen. Somehow it had become okay with me when she did this to me, but NOT my children. The last year was particularly difficult with the oldest. We would see her just out of the hospital or as we took her to the store and every time she would promise my boys to make little cakes with them....a train at Christmas, Eggs for Easter, Bugs for the spring and summer. Each time I knew this would not happen. We drove by her apartment everyday and the oldest would ask if we could stop and make these cakes with Grandma Patti. "Another time," I would say.

When mom died I realized that the saddest thing about these unfulfilled promises was that Mom so wanted them to come true....probably even more than my boys did. So, as a way to share my sweet mom with my children and my nephews my aunt baked the bug cakes and we let them decorate them. We told them that they were from Grandma Patti. They loved every second of it. Now, my boys tell me all the time how much they love Grandma Patti.

THANKS!!!! Aunt Claudia