My mother went back to school the same year that I headed off to Boston University to start my freshman year of college. I am embarrassed to say that I was not thrilled with the prospect of my mother walking around the UVM campus with so many of my high school friends; however, Mum was determined to get certified as a teacher and this was how she planned to do it. Aside from the occasional story that my mother would recall on the phone (about how she said, "Hi" to my friend Matt on the campus shuttle bus), I was proud of her.
By Catherine Amorous Moore, camorous@gmail.com
I have realized that I may never see my mother wear Lilly Pulitzer, as I often wished back in my sorority days. Nevertheless, every time I wear Lilly, myself, I will think of her and I will know that I am "me," because my mother allowed
herself to be Polly Campbell Moore.
This is probably a question that most moms ask themselves, but if you ask my mother, she would say that she doesn't regret it. She's not the type to look back into the past and wish for things that never happened. Instead, she has a forward motion that I admire. She has the capability to look at a situation, analyze it, and then take action. She lifts her head, sets her jaw in determination, and goes forth to conquer! My mother is not dramatic and she does not put herself in the spotlight often. Instead, she focuses on the task at hand and does not get distracted by daydreaming.
Polly Campbell was a "Middy" in the late 1970s, attending Middlebury College, the small Liberal Arts School in Southern Vermont. After marrying a New York ski racer (my father), she settled into the rhythm of raising four athletic children in the Green Mountains. Twenty years of hockey games, soccer scrimmages, and ballet lessons (for me) gave her a life fulfilled through her children, but also plenty of time to wonder. What would she would have done with her own career, had she continued down that path?
For many reasons, I am not like my Mother. I am far too girly and frilly for her taste. She likes simplicity; I like a ribbon or two here and there. She is not the typical Lady dressed in Lilly Pulitzer (as I once wished she would be). However, the lessons she has taught have far greater value than looking the part could have ever meant in my life. She has helped me discover what is my own- in style and in other areas of my life. My mother's careful attention to elements such as: practicality, comfort, and natural beauty, have given me a desire to seek out those things those things in life that carry true value. It my mother's determination to be herself, no matter the opinion of others, as well as her perseverance, that carries through the generations.
Nicknamed Polly in her childhood for reasons that I forget, my mom is not a fashion expert. She has a lovely dark complexion that she gets from her Austrian heritage and a smooth, beautifully chiseled face. Her light brown eyes, her wide smile, and her wavy, short hair is peppered with silver (that she refuses to dye). These are all defining characteristics of a woman who believes in natural beauty. No matter how many times I have tried to tempt her to visit my hairdresser in Boston to get "just a couple highlights," she has politely refused. Her wardrobe has always been composed of deep green cable-knit sweaters, quality LL Bean jeans, and solid Dansko clogs; my mother is a New England woman.
