My Mother Was a Pillar of Honesty

A paragon of integrity.

I learned this the day I questioned the existence of Santa Claus.

I asked my father if there really was a Santa.

He responded quickly and without hesitation with a hearty “YES!” and then launched into a forty minute monologue as to the reasons why…….

It was a typical response from him and entirely unsatisfactory to me.

So I went to my mother and asked, “Is there REALLY a Santa Claus?”

She looked at me for a moment and asked, “Do you really want to know?”

I said I did and after another moment she looked me square in the eye and said, “No.”

I felt a flood of emotions wash over me but the one I remember most was relief.

I was finally being treated like I was old enough to know the truth and not like a baby.

After a lifetime of hearing, “You’re too little to understand.”  “I’ll explain it when you get older.” “You’ll get it when you grow up…….” 

It was exhilarating.

My mother told me the truth!

She didn’t sugar coat it, or try and buffer it in any way. Just the straight unvarnished truth right between the eyes!

And I knew from that moment on she’d always tell me the truth no matter how much it might hurt or how hard it might be to hear.

Years later she told me she remembered that conversation too. She said it was one of the saddest days of her life, when ‘the baby’ stopped believing.