Happy Mother’s Day. I called my mom today, she’s such an amazing woman. She’s resilient, strong, kind, caring, loving, funny. She chooses to see positivity amidst chaos that she’s been through. I’m happy she’s my mom. I’m grateful for the things she has shared with me about her life. I love you, mom.

Dear Pedro,
I was missing you this week and I saw my photo album with you and took a scroll. You were my best friend, and I think about you all the time. I miss your snuggles and snores, I miss having you around and sharing secrets.

Let me share a funny story about my mom, where she accidentally gave me a nickname that stuck with my friends. My mom often drove me and my friends around – to the mall, to other friend’s houses, to parties, to school, to sports, to bars. I think she loved that she was in on the gossip, I didn’t hide things from my mom, I told her mostly everything and she wasn’t judgemental, she was supportive. I didn’t give her a reason to worry about me. I didn’t drink heavily, I didn’t do drugs, I didn’t party, I was focused on sports and school. On this day, I must have been 14 years old, it was obviously before I had my license and could drive myself. My mom was driving me and 2 of my friends to the mall – back in the day, it was cool to hang out at the mall, we would spend hours just walking around drinking an orange julius. I can’t remember how the conversation got started but we were talking about puberty and our bodies changing and shopping for bras. I also don’t remember the prompt for my mom, but I think my friend said something about having boulders for breasts which led my mom to interject into our conversation and announce that Pam has pebbles! I was very flat chested. My friends erupted in laughter and from that day forward, they called me pebbles. It was my new nickname. The friend from that car ride that I’m still friends with today still calls me Pebbles sometimes. So here I am, Pam Pebbles, thanks to my mom, roasting me about being flat chested as an early teen.