The second Sunday in May
A page for your mother that is not flowers again
Most people find this the hardest page to write, and the reason is consistent: with a mother there is too much to say rather than too little, so it collapses into "thank you for everything" and the specificity drains out.
The fix is to go smaller, not bigger. One thing she did that she has forgotten and you have not. The lunch she packed for four years. The night she stayed up. Name that, and the page does more than a bouquet ever could — including the bouquet you were going to send instead.
Templates that suit it
The birthday template rewrites itself for a mother — set the relationship while editing and the words change with it.
What to write
Use these as they are, or as a running start. Every template also has a draft-it-for-me button if the words will not come.
When you are not usually the sentimental one
I am not good at saying this out loud, so I built it instead. You did far more than I understood at the time. Happy Mother’s Day, Ma.
When you live in another city
Six hundred kilometres away and I still cook things wrong and think of you. Happy Mother’s Day. Calling tonight.
Something specific, which always works best
You packed my lunch every day for four years and never once forgot the second paratha. I noticed. I just never said so. Happy Mother’s Day.
Works for: A mother · A grandmother · A mother-in-law · Someone who raised you
Questions people actually ask
She is not very good with technology. Will she manage?
She taps the link in WhatsApp and it opens. There is nothing to install, no account, no password, and nothing to press except scroll.
Can I write it in Hindi?
Yes, and it is typeset properly in Devanagari rather than squeezed into a Latin font. You can mix Hindi and English freely, which is how most people actually write.