How do I sum up my mom, Lucille Pollina, in a hundred words? I was stricken with appendicitis on her birthday many years ago. Instead of being showered with gifts and love and adoration she was instead showered with a 13 year old's reaction to anesthesia. She stayed with me all night in the hospital, not caring for her arthritic back but only for me. She gave birth to 5 amazing girls, raised us single-handedly and still, though we're all in our 30's and 40's, never misses an opportunity to be our mom. Listening to us, advising us when we need it, backing off when we don't. Telling us that just because we were girls it didn't mean we couldn't throw a wicked curve ball, though she, herself, throws like a girl ;)
Even approaching 70 years of age she is a ball of fire. Sicilian energy at its finest, she works full time at the SA Shelter in downtown Buffalo. She never misses one of her grand kid's events, parties, graduations, plays, missing teeth, she jumps on every opportunity to show them all that she's there for them, but doesn't go against what we, her daughters, are trying to instill in them. She has nothing, gives everything, and is packaged in a parcel so small that she can't even reach the top shelf in my freezer. My mom, who knows every cooking trick in the book, who can cure anything ailment, who has seen her share of adversity and overcome obstacles that would kill a weaker soul., and still cries at the National Anthem. I'm sure every kid believes their mom is the greatest, but I know my mom leads that flock. I love you Mama. <3
