DANETTE GOULET -- Reporter’s Notebook

I called my mother to tell her that I was supposed to write a column

about her for Mother’s Day.

Within minutes she was recounting some of my finer moments.

“I still remember that time you and -- I can’t remember which one of

your friends it was -- got into trouble in the fifth grade,” she said.

I, of course, proceeded to defend my preteen actions, which we will

not get into here.

Then there was that time in middle school.

Amazingly, she neglected to bring up her favorite story about how I

told her when I was 4 years old that I knew my rights and she couldn’t

tell me what to do. (Which would be clean my room, a.k.a. the pigsty)

“It’s been quite an experience,” she said. “It’s never been dull. I

can say that with certainty -- it’s never been dull.”

Like it would have been if she had only had five kids? Come on.

Now mind you, my reason for calling her was that I knew darn well that

we would end up in one of these humorous conversations.

I adore my mother.

And it’s not just because she never killed me, as I certainly would

have done.

It is partly because she fulfills her job description and loves me

unconditionally.

It is in part because when I call her to tell her of my many escapades

-- whether it be sky diving, bungee jumping or cliff diving -- it always

elicits a fantastic response. You know, that cross between a gasp and a

groan, which in her case is always followed by “oh Danette.”

It is her sage advice that I don’t always listen to.

It is how much I know she misses me.

It is because six years ago, when I told my rather large family, all

of whom live in a 10-mile radius, that I was moving away, she looked at

me and said: “I always knew you’d go. I didn’t know where or when, but I

always knew you’d go.”

She has always been the one who really knew me -- the one I could

never fool.

And it is because when I suggested to her last summer that my absence

was no big deal, since she has five other kids and a gaggle of grandkids

around, she was livid and told me that was the stupidest thing she’d ever

heard.

* DANETTE GOULET covers education for the Daily Pilot.