I'm back.....

It's been almost nine months (Now THAT'S scary).
Since then, I've lost my mother and turned 50.
What's that about life stresses....
Oh,well, I'm still here. And I feel the need to write, the skill I've had all my life, the skill I've based my career on. The skill I know like the inside of my favorite pj's.
My mom died - myocardial infarction - heart- Thank goodness it hadn't really given her a problem until now, in her 85-86 year.
What a wonderful, wonderful woman. I hope I told her that enough.
She inspired me in everything I did, from the music I listened to and sang to the material I wrote.
Still, she gave me room when she saw I was headed down a path that was different from the rest of the family: first to get a job off the family farm, first to go to college, first to date a boy nobody knew, first to live away...
She was always there. I tell folks, the greatest gift she gave me was freedom. She encouraged me to choose my own path and then stepped aside to let me follow it.
In recent years, the path brought me right back to her. I wanted to spend more time, stroke her hands, rub her feet, look into her lovely, bright eyes and tell her how much I loved her and appreciated her.
What I liked most about all of that was she accepted it with such humility. I don't think she realized how great she was, what an inspiration of a good woman, wife and mother, friend and neighbor, citizen and Christian.
Mom, on my 50th birthday, when I normally give you a call and tell you thanks for having me, I write my love instead, on the vastness of the World Wide Web, for all to hear and see, for maybe, eternity.
Forever, your daughter, Joanne