For Mom’s birthday this year I bought her a glider bench. She’s been wanting a bench in the yard for years, and in my endless random searches on Amazon I came across this glider (and a hammock, and a small green house, and a few other things I thought she’d like), and she went to the board of the co-op to ask if it would be okay to put the glider bench in the back yard, and they said a resounding yes. So I ordered it, and it came in two days, faster than expected, and I decided to put it together right away, in the downstairs hall, because the box was too heavy to carry upstairs. Mom helped where she could, holding this or that steady, but I seem to have a knack for putting things together with an Allen wrench and blurry pictorial instructions.
As soon as we finished construction and set the bench up in the yard, I ran upstairs to get the dogs (and our jackets, because it was getting chilly). The whole idea of the bench, or the vision I had in my head, was that Mom could sit on the bench and glide back and forth while Cricket spent hours (or minutes) exploring the yard.
We attached a long rope to the bench and looped the leashes through it and sat down on the bench to see how things would go. Ellie immediately asked for uppies, but Cricket set off on her adventure. She was frustrated when the rope stopped before she could reach Kevin’s building (her bestie, Kevin, the mini-Golden Doodle), but she survived, and pulled the rope all the way in the other direction, expressing frustration again when she reached the limits on that side and couldn’t explore the back of beyond.
The glider bench is light enough so that the gardeners will be able to move it out of the way when they mow the lawn, though Mom was considering putting it right under the paw paw tree – to warn them away from doing any more damage. There really isn’t room for the bench under the paw paw tree, though, so maybe she’ll just sit on her bench, twenty feet away, and glare at them. She’s tiny, but she’s fierce when it comes to protecting her trees.
And she has a stockpile of allergy meds ready for just such an occasion.
I’m pretty sure there will be a significant amount of sewing done on that bench – especially now that she’s had her second carpal tunnel surgery, so she’s good for at least another year.
She also likes to do sun prints with all kinds of flowers and leaves, so she’ll have a comfortable place to sit while the sun does its work. She could even move the bench over to her vegetable plot (or, I could move the bench over to her vegetable plot), so she can watch her garlic grow. I prefer to sit in the air-conditioning and watch TV, but to each her own.
I still wish I could set up a hammock for her, string it up between two of the tall trees the way she’s always wanted, but we keep deciding against it, because getting in and out of it would be difficult, and Cricket would be no help at all.
I’m not a huge fan of Mom’s birthdays, to be honest. Mother’s day is better, because it feels timeless and universal, but birthdays mean that she’s getting older, and I’m against that. I need my Mommy to live forever, and stay superhuman, the way she’s always been. Cricket and I are on the same page here. Cricket is as much in denial about her own aging as she is about her Grandma’s. She prefers to believe that time stopped the day she first met her Grandma and nothing has to change ever again.
Short of that, the plan is to revel in the ability to sit outside on the glider bench, two people and two dogs, letting time stop every once in a while. For as long as possible.
If you haven’t had a chance yet, please check out my Young Adult novel, Yeshiva Girl, on Amazon. And if you feel called to write a review of the book, on Amazon, or anywhere else, I’d be honored.
Yeshiva Girl is about a Jewish teenager on Long Island, named Isabel, though her father calls her Jezebel. Her father has been accused of inappropriate sexual behavior with one of his students, which he denies, but Izzy implicitly believes it’s true. As a result of his problems, her father sends her to a co-ed Orthodox yeshiva for tenth grade, out of the blue, and Izzy and her mother can’t figure out how to prevent it. At Yeshiva, though, Izzy finds that religious people are much more complicated than she had expected. Some, like her father, may use religion as a place to hide, but others search for and find comfort, and community, and even enlightenment. The question is, what will Izzy find?
rachelmankowitz 
A lovely tribute to your mom and the time you enjoy together!
Thank you!
Sweet pics! A thoughtful gift 💖
Thank you!
Your mom is so blessed to have such a loving and thoughtful daughter. ❤
Thank you so much! I’m the lucky one!
Happy Birthday to your mom!
Thank you!
Happy Birthday to your mother and many happy returns. The glider bench is a wonderful gift.
Thank you!
What a lovely birthday gift, and I hope that your mother has many more years to enjoy sewing in it and glaring at the gardeners getting too close to the paw paw tree!
Thank you!
What a wonderful gift.I would love to sit on that bench! I’m sure your Mum will have many hapy hours on it .
I hope so! Thank you!
Sweet post, Rachel. I bet she’ll like that bench this summer. Happy birthday to your mom.
Thank you!
Wishing many more years to your mom!
Thank you!
Yes. Mothers should live forever!
Absolutely!
I LOVE the picture of Cricket and her grandmother. Sweetness…
Me too! Thank you!
How wonderful, and what a lovely post Rachel. Happy Birthday to your Mom. I hope she gets hours of pleasure from her bench in the garden.
Me too! Thank you!
Your Mum looks thrilled with her very thoughful present. It’s often difficult to know what to buy elderly parents because they pretty much have everything they need, except time. Sadly, Amazon don’t sell time, nor does anyone else.
Amazon really needs to work on that!
Absolutely
Happy birthday to your mother. I think the bench looks enviably good.
Thank you!
What a fabulous gift. I was super impressed to know you have ‘a knack for putting things together with an Allen wrench and blurry pictorial instructions. You should hire yourself out to write better instructions for assembling all sorts of things.
Thank you! I will have to think about that!
The bench looks great and comfortable. I’ve never seen them in Australia.
You definitely need one!
I’m seriously impressed by your knack of putting these things together
Thank you!
Happy Birthday to Mom! I have a glider bench and I know what you mean about lazing around while time stops. Sipping coffee adds to the enjoyment 👍😁
She would definitely agree with you, as long as there’s some chocolate in that coffee!
What a lovely and thoughtful gift. Here’s to many years of enjoyment. ‘Yom Huledet Sameach’ to your mum.
Todah Rabah!
What a wonderful,post about love, relationships, and family. You and your mom are lucky to have each other!
Thank you so much!
I hope your mum enjoys many happy hours on her new bench. We have two chairs that look the same as that bench, but they don’t ‘glide’.
Best wishes, Pete.
The glide is everything! Thank you!
Sweet post, Rachel.
Thank you!
Wonderful! What a great plan to celebrate your mother – on her birthday or any day. She’s lovely, by the way.
Thank you so much!
Outdoor benches are the best!
They really are!
You’re a good granddaughter, Rachel. She’s happy with your gift.
Art
I’m also liking your idea of time being stopped while sitting on the bench. Maybe that can be a suspBenchsion of time. And your idea inspired me to write a short poem over at my blogs. I’m not yet sure if it’s good. If it is, I’m wondering if it’s ok with you if I post a shout-out (under my poem) to you and your blog post for causing me to write it. If it’s not ok with you, I respect that too.
That’s so kind! Thank you! Of course it’s ok.
Sweet! Thanks Rachel! 🙂
Happy birthday to your Momma! I hope all four of you pass many enjoyable hours relaxing on the new glider. It looks so peaceful.
Thank you!
Happy Birthday to your Mom! This was such a sweet post!
Thank you!
Did not know they still made those. My aunt has one that her parents had. No telling how old it is.
Good news that it lasts!
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The bench is delightful. I can see your Mum will spend many happy days sitting outside. As well as both the dogs by her feet. (not forgetting your self)
Thank you!
Awwww… Such a sweet tribute. Happy Birthday to your Mama.
Thank you!
A mom full of warmth and goodwill is an enormous gift. May she continue long after this birthday to enrich your life by God’s grace.
I hope so! Thank you!
Every grandmother needs a glider or a porch swing. No grandmother has ever successfully mastered getting in and out of a hammock, so you are wise to not buy one of those. The last time I tried to get into one I promptly fell out the other side!
Ha! I had that problem with the hammock even as a kid.
Since I love being outside I would be right out there with your Mom and at least one of my dogs, too! That was a wonderful present, Rachel.
Thank you!
What an incredibly thoughtful gift Rachel! For Mother’s Day you can get a sign for her bench that reads- “Protector of the Paw Paws.” I’m not sure which picture I love more- the one of your mom on her bench with Ellie at guard or the one of her and puppy Cricket.
Ha! I love that!
Hi Rachel, I read this post yesterday and it rang a chord for me with regard to potential loss, and the desire to preserve the experiences we have with family and family pets.
We’d love to be able to bottle the memories intact so we could decant them periodically, but all our methods for doing this are flawed. Video, or photos. Writing seems best because we can preserve how the moment felt as it happened.
Writing is the closest I can get.
How thoughtful of you, & Happy Birthday to your lucky mom! I stumbled across this read from another blogger I subscribe to. Networking works! Is there a way to follow you?
Thank you!
Thank you for the follow back! Very appreciated! 😄
Lol, I found the follow button. 🤣 Done!
What a great lovely birthday gift to your mom.
Thank you!
such a great gift of love and both of them look so cozy.. 💖🙏
Thank you!
Happy birthday to Mom…great gift!
Thank you!
The bench looks wonderful. Besides being a gifted writer, you’re a gifted assembler of furniture!
Thank you!
I commend your attempt here to make your mother feel as independent as possible with the bench idea. I’m trying to do the same with my elderly mother. Happy Passover.
Thank you!!!
Happy Birthday to your mom!
Thank you!
Your mother is lovely, and so is the bench. And she is blessed to have a throughtful, loving daughter like you.
Thank you so much!
You are a good daughter. My dad’s birthdays (most recently: 82!) have begun to frighten me because I always wonder how much time is left. Although my mom is only a few years younger, I haven’t lost my childlike notion that Mom will outlive me.
It’s so hard!