90th Birthday
My boys got to meet, know and love both of my grandmothers, their great-grandmothers. Now that they are older, I find this to be one of the greatest blessings of my parenting journey. I’m so deeply grateful when I look back on the photos of them together.
This is my mom’s mom Ruth (the boys called her Nana Ru). She adored the boys and ended up living nearby so they could see her often. The boys loved their Nana Ru! She was a nurse, a working mom when those were far rarer than they are today. Her caring nature was evident throughout her life, even during her later years when she struggled with a dementia-related illness. She passed away in 2008, when Mikey was four.
My father’s mother lived even longer. I haven’t written much about this side of my family in the blog. We didn’t see them as much as Dave’s family and my mom’s side of my family. Mikey wasn’t quite as comfortable with them, so he did not write about them often in his journal.
He struggled at their house. He wasn’t very comfortable there. They were always nice, but I wasn’t as comfortable there either and that made it a little harder for me to help Mikey. Remind me to do a blog post on how our kids with autism pick up on their caregivers emotions (and they get a terrible reputation for not being tuned in to other people’s emotions…not true, in my humble opinion).
But this party, Mikey loved! Grandma Rita (aka, Pee Wee Nan, since she was not even 5 feet tall) had party crackers, filled with paper crowns. It was fun and silly, and he truly enjoyed being there that day. It made it easy and joyful for me to be there to celebrate her.
I think that is wonderful, because she was truly a remarkable woman. She was one of two women who graduated from her Fordham Law School class in 1946. She practiced law for her entire career, which went into her eighties. And, she made the best eggplant parmesean – truly, so so good!
I’m thrilled that the 90th birthday celebration of this very special Grandma is a happy memory for everyone in our family. And beyond that, I’m so glad my boys got to know my grandmothers…blessings abound!
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About the Author
Erica Mauro is a mom to two teenage boys, Will who is neurotypical and Michael with Autism and cognitive delays. She holds a BA in Psychology from Colgate University and a Masters of Psychology in Education from Columbia Teacher’s College. Before staying home with her children, she worked as an elementary school teacher. For five years, she served on the Board of Directors of the Molly Ann Tango Memorial Foundation, a charity dedicated to enriching the lives of children with special needs. In partnership with her husband Dave, she aspires to parent by using daily life as an opportunity for therapeutic intervention, seizing on real experiences as opportunities to build skills and strategies for Michael in a joyful, loving home environment. On the tougher early days, she just tried to get everyone safely to bedtime and start fresh in the morning. *wink* 
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