Sunrise was just dawning over Lake Wobegon as Maria Jacobsen's pickup truck pulled up to the Helm's house. "Good morning, Maria", Doris Helm said as she climbed into the truck. "I liked it better when our daughter Julia was at home, and she would make me breakfast in bed", Maria replied. "This is the first Mother's Day that she's been away from home." "Well, at least we get to see her and Dena today. Maryland is so far away that Melissa can't even make it home. It's the first time Dena has been away from home, too, but she's more used to it because she drove with us to Maplewood Academy all the time that Melissa was there. Do you think Julia has adapted well to academy this year?" "She's getting good grades, but I think all the changes have been confusing to her, between joining the Adventist church and going to a new school. At least Dena is there with her and they are good friends." Meanwhile breakfast had just finished at Maplewood Academy and Dena Helm and Julia Jacobsen were cleaning up the cafeteria and setting out the decorations for the banquet. "Better hurry," said Dena. "We still have to get dressed once we are done." "Don't remind me", Julia said..."we've got to get our dress cleared by Miss Helgesen." Old Helga Helgesen had been the dean for years and years and still subscribed to dress codes the way they had been done in the 1960's. Dresses had to be several inches below the knees, have long sleeves, and a collar that buttoned to the top. "Why don't they just make us wear a black nun's robe while they're at it?" "Since I'm a pastor's kid, I've always had to wear that kind of stuff to church, so I have it around.. besides, it does get cold in Minnesota and you need covering in all those places anyway, usually. I wonder how my mom is going to feel now at this banquet, though, with all these fancy ladies here from Minneapolis? She's not much for fashion." "Maybe we can go with her to the Mall of America after this banquet and get her something nice, Julia replied... Your mother is a pretty woman, she just needs some advice on how to bring it out. As for my mother... the dean can control what I wear...but she's not going to dare challenge what my mother wears. I may have to look like a prude but I want my mother to look sharp. Julia and Dena were back at their room in the dormitory when the knock on the door came, and their mothers arrived. "Wow, you're early, mommy," Julia said. "We have time to do your hair. And I've got this dress the dean won't let me wear, but *you* can wear it, it will look great on you... And Julia went busily to work fixing up her mother... in no time at all Maria Jacobsen was being transformed from a farmer of Lake Wobegon to a woman of fashion. Dena was talking to Doris... "Have you heard from Melissa yet today, mommy?" "No I haven't...we left really early and you know Melissa doesn't get up early. I think she'll try to call tonight. The school term is over at C.U.C. and I'm not sure yet when she's coming home for the summer." This was Melissa's second year at Columbia Union College and after a short fling with trying to be a theology major, she had settled into doing respiratory therapy...her studies had gone a lot better with her boyfriend Ulrich being in Germany rather than on campus. "Wow...Mrs. Jacobsen, you really look good," Dena said. "Shall I try to do your hair too, mommy?" "Yes, that would be nice" said Doris... and Dena went to work with the curling iron on Doris' hair. She had finished about halfway when the electrical system of the old girls dorm couldn't take the load from 50 curling irons and 50 hair dryers and 20 steam irons all plugged in at once, and the main fuse blew. The lights went out...and stayed out. "Oh no! What are we going to do? The banquet starts in half an hour!" "Just get me a hat, Dena," said Doris. "I'll be fine." "It was going to look so good, too! Dena pouted.. I'm so sorry." They picked up one of Dena's hats...it didn't quite go with Doris' dress but it would have to do. Then they pinned on their corsages and went over to the cafeteria. "Julia, it's very creative what you've done with your outfit," Doris said.. Smart idea to put a blouse under the dress." "Yes, but it's very hot, Julia replied." "I want to meet some of your friends, Julia," said Maria. "A lot of our friends aren't going to be at the banquet," Julia said... Their mom's can't make it to the banquet, or else they just don't care. "Well then who is going to be there?" "All the stuck-up crowd from the big city." Once inside the cafeteria, Brittany Thompson, president of the Girls Club, stood up to welcome everyone. She read a short poem about mothers and then they had the prayer, then it was time to eat. The daughters were supposed to serve the mothers...Dena and Julia quickly moved through the line and got food for their mothers... but then they noticed something. Brittany and her friends Ashley, Heather, and Lindsey, the officers of the girls club, were sitting at a table separate from their mothers... in fact they hadn't said a word to them since they entered the cafeteria. "Come on, Dena, let's make sure those ladies get served too," Julia said, and they went over to the ladies and brought them food." Ashley turned around just then..."Hey Jacobsen...if we wanted a servant we would have asked for one." "That's some way to talk for someone who's too stuck up to feed her own mother!" Julia shot back. "Well at least our mothers don't dress like street-walkers unlike *some* people we know" Brittany chimed in. "Yes, or like missionaries from the 1960's like Dena's mother" Ashley said. Those were fighting words, and the two freshman girls both glared at the four popular seniors for a long time. Julia envisioned how the nice purple grape juice might look on the front of Brittany's white dress. Then Dena motioned to Julia-- come on, let's go. Julia looked surprised but they went back to their table. "It's OK".. whispered Dena, "When Brittany and the rest of them get up they will discover that their seats were coated with black shoe polish!" "What's that on your backside, Dena? Julia asked.." Oh no! Somebody had changed the chairs and moved them all to Dena and Julia's table... Which meant not only they but their mothers would have a nice black spot on their bottom. They could hear the giggles of the senior girls in the background. Before Dena could warn her, Doris spotted a familiar face over at the table of mothers, someone she knew from campmeeting. She got up and walked over to have a chat, blissfully unaware of the black patch on her rear. She could hear the giggles from the girls at the next table and whispers of "missionary woman". She approached Brittany's mother. "Hello, Mrs. Thompson...how are things in Bloomington?" "Doris don't look now but there's a black patch on the back of your dress...I wonder how it got there...oh my...Brittany! Did you do this to Mrs' Helm's dress..." "It serves her right.. the old crone" "Brittany, that is no way to talk... you apologize to Mrs. Helm this instant!" "You should talk...here you and all the other mothers come here one day a year and pretend like you love us... you try in your own way to be in style. But you just send us off to boarding school to have us out of the way...and as long as we look good one day a year you don't care about the rest of the time and you don't have to confront the fact that you've failed as a parent. I hate you!" She stood up from the table and stormed out of the room, followed by her friends. But as they reached the door they were met by Miss Helgesen. "Brittany, bad enough it is to call someone else's mother a street-walker. Worse even it is to put shoe polish on a chair. But to say you hate your own mother on mother's day, too much this is. Each of you $200 will be fined and you will have to go to Mall of America with Dena and Julia and their mothers to help them get new outfits to replace these ones you wrecked." So as the banquet finished they all loaded into the Thompson's mini-van and set out for the mall. Mrs. Thompson was eager to make up for what her daughter had done and her plastic got used pretty heavily that day. In the frenzy of buying various outfits, all was forgiven and they all became quite good friends as a result. As they were headed back to the car loaded down with packages, Brittany's mother was saying "Doris, I don't know what to do with Brittany sometimes... we've raised her good but all of a sudden she has become so independent and rebellious. "Oh, our Melissa went through a phase like that too," Doris said... As soon as she got out to college in Maryland it was like we didn't even recognize her anymore. But in time we realized that she still loved us, she was just trying to build her own identity. We wish that hadn't meant running off to Germany for the summer and dating a guy with green hair, but I think it's just part of growing up. In fact, we'd better be getting back towards Lake Wobegon pretty soon because Melissa is going to try to call us tonight. It was 8:30 at night before they got on the road, the back of the pickup loaded down with the various boxes. At five minutes till midnight they rolled up to Doris' house in Lake Wobegon. Right behind them, a Volkswagon rolled into the driveway. Now who would be up at this hour of night, Doris thought? Just then Melissa emerged from the passenger side of the Volkswagon and Ulrich, her boyfriend got out of the drivers side. "Hi, Mommy! Happy Mothers day!" Melissa shouted, and grasped her mother up in a big hug. Doris could feel a very exotic color of lipstick brush off on her cheek. "Hi Daddy!" "Guess what?! Ulrich and I are engaged and he's got a church to pastor now in Germany and we're going to get married this summer and I'm going to go over there with him! See my new engagement ring? She pulled up her shirt to reveal a diamond stud in her navel, and she also had a nice diamond ring on her hand. "We drove for 24 hours straight to get here, Mommy, and I am so happy to be home for Mothers day. I didn't think we would make it! Your hair looks so neat with the curls just on one side like that...it's new wave or something, right? Oh wow... look at all these clothes you've got here in the back of the truck. You really shopped up a storm today. I wonder if any of them will fit me?... But Doris didn't hear what Melissa was saying because she had collapsed in shock as soon as she heard the word "engaged". Pastor Helm was quite shocked too but he managed to maintain his composure enough to help Ulrich and Melissa carry his wife into the house and lay her down on the couch. (Adventist schools promised they would help our kids meet Adventist partners...he thought... but we didn't expect *this* partner). Melissa kept on talking a mile a minute... "We have tickets out of Minneapolis to Germany for a week from today. Ulrich can preach for you on Sabbath but we have to hurry up... we have a wedding to plan and we should get it done this week. I have to get my hair dyed and everything--this blue hair just won't go with the wedding color scheme--Ulrich has to change his hair color too." Ulrich excused himself and went to bed, as did Pastor Helm, but Melissa stayed up until her mother stirred on the couch. "Momma, is the computer working?" she asked "Melissa honey, you knock your dear mother out with a surprise engagement announcement and then all you can be concerned about is whether the computer is working?" "But it's your mother's day present, momma. I made you your very own World Wide Web page. Oh, nevermind... I can use Ulrich's laptop and show it to you." And soon the modem was clunking and clicking through the phone system of Lake Wobegon and making an international call to Germany to access Ulrich's dial-up internet access. There was a very long silence as the page began to load, very very slowly. "Wake up, Momma... it's all loaded" Melissa poked her mother and Doris looked at a picture of herself, with the heading Doris Helm, Best Mom on Earth and a Top Ten reasons why Doris Helm is the best mom ever." "But wait, momma, there's more... I've got all my old baby pictures and the pictures of us as a family loaded on CD-ROM--all searchable and everything. I love you so very much, you are the best mother in the world and I want you to never forget that." Doris reached out and grabbed Melissa and gave her a big hug. She was still wondering how her daughter's postmodern wedding ideas would go over in conservative Lake Wobegon...but then she remembered the fancy ladies from that morning at the banquet, and she had an idea. "Melissa, there's something I should tell you," Doris said. "What's that, momma...you don't have a CD-ROM drive on your computer?" "No, it's more than that... When your father and I got married, it was in the early 70's and he was a radical anti-war activist. My parents thought I was making a huge mistake. Of course I had no idea that he would turn out to be a minister then, and neither did he. But if he or I had been concerned about what people thought about us, our wedding never would have happened." "So what does that mean for me, momma?" Doris smiled..."Show me a well-organized, well-dressed, happy lady and I'll show you a woman on Prozac", she said. "If you worry about how your relationships are going to look to the outside world, you'll never take the time with your partner to actually make them work." "Momma, you know me... you know that I don't care what people think." "I know that, Melissa. I'm talking more to myself. And I would rather have my Melissa who knows how to be herself, than a hundred Brittany's and Ashley's and Heather's that are trying to fit a mold of what they're supposed to be. Never change, darling. I love you...(but you are going to cover up that navel ring at the wedding, aren't you?) Melissa smiled and gave her mother a big hug, and somehow they knew everything was going to be all right.