I’M CELEBRATING MY mother. Pink tissue paper and ribbon fold and tie over the gift: foot lotion. Lavender scented. A present for the Mother’s Day I usually forget. The last few years have been celebrated with a phone call in the late afternoon, just scraping in. Though now I’ve felt the pain, I know the sleeplessness, the sacrifice – even though I’m only four months into it.

Someone passed comment the other day: “Hunger makes the best sauce.” I liked the sound of that. It made me think of my mother: she did the best she could, and what she could do – was the best.