I’ve always had a very cool mom. Here she is with my Dad around the time they were married in 1961…

She wore a miniskirt in the early 1970s, which didn’t go over too well with the nuns at the Catholic high school where she taught briefly in Kankakee. She was just too cool for that school.

We eventually moved to Europe in the late 1970s, and here’s a pic from then…

Everybody loves their mother, and I am no exception. She had five children, but she made each of us feel special in our own way, even though family finances required that she work full-time pretty much all the time.

She started her adult life as a teacher, so all of us were well ahead of the other kids our age. Inheriting her intelligence - Mom’s IQ has been tested at the genius level - probably didn’t hurt either.

But she taught us more than reading and writing. She made extra sure we all understood that coming from a working-class background meant we would all have to strive much harder than others to get ahead in life. No matter how bad things got in those days, she never gave up, never panicked and never lost her keen sense of humor. Mom has always been a great role model.

Here’s a photo from last Christmas…

I’ve always believed that I get my story-telling ability from my paternal grandmother. This is Grandma around the time she was first married in 1938…

Here she is many years ago with my daughter Vanessa, who will turn 21 this summer…

Grandma rode a horse to school when she was growing up in the Kentucky backwoods. She had a hard-scrabble upbringing, but she’s always made the best of any situation she has found herself in. I can listen to her fascinating stories for hours on end. And her biting humor never fails to crack me up.

My maternal grandmother, Nettie Akers, passed away many years ago, but I spent a large part of my childhood at her house on a farm in rural Iroquois County. Some of my best memories are of Grandma Akers. She doted on her grandchildren. I don’t think she ever so much as scolded me once, and I still think about her all the time.

Grandma grew up in southern Illinois, moved to Pontiac with my grandad, then to a farm in Milks Grove Township after they were flooded out. Here she is with two of her four children…

Happy Mother’s Day to Mom, Grandma and everyone else out there who has children and grandchildren. We all love you dearly.