My Mom

One year ago this past week (August 30th) I lost my Mom to a heart attack after routine surgery. She was 74 years old, and left behind her children, grand-children and great grand-children as well as special nephews and nieces, a brother and beloved sister and many other family and friends.

I still go to the phone when there is some incident or issue or joke to tell her. I still wake in the middle of the night and think about her.

This time of year, Mom would be in political heaven! Mom was an incredibly well-read woman who raised her four children to be open minded, independent thinkers and this I know for sure; we, all four of us were brought up without racial predjudice. This is not because we lived in an area where it was mostly white, middle class. We read, we talked about things and later as we became young adults, Mom would totally love to have conversations regarding politics. She was an independent person who loved a great debate.

Mom was sassy, high-spirited and would surely have supported and voted for Barack Obama.

I've not been to her gravesite in some time. Kim tends the grave often. When we all gathered for the short ceremony, I felt such pain in my heart. Those of you who know my relationship with Mom's mother, my beloved Gramma, know it is doubly painful for me to go to that place. Grieving is such hard work!

Me thinks we do not heal from this kind of pain. Rather, we just get used to feeling it.