Tomorrow, April 11th, is the 11th anniversary of my mother's death. She passed away in a hospice facility on April 11, 1998. If I remember correctly, it was the day before Easter. Just as tomorrow will be. She was diagnosed with uterine cancer on February 17th and died about seven weeks later.

Mama was a shy person. She was very humble and kind. There is a lot I want to say about her. But, I'm saving it for a possible book I plan to write on her someday. She was the greatest hero I've ever known. She took all kinds of abuse from an alcoholic husband, had four kids, scrimped and saved to get us things that other kids took for granted. Mama was always there for us in the darkest of days...and I do mean the very darkest of days. Mama was brave. But, her bravery was due to the fact she had four children she intended to see get something she never had; and education. Mama knew the only way we could get our way out of the depths of the despair she experienced was through an education. I thank God for her. I hate to even think what would have become of me if she had not been around.

She took the news of her impending death in stride. She never flinched when the doctors told her she had only a 10% chance of living another six months. Mama was a devout Christian. Death had no hold on her. The only thing she worried about, you guessed it, her children who were full grown by this time. Mama was never quite the same after my little sister died in 1989. It was miraculous she lasted another nine years. I think she was holding on for us. She was the very personification of "a good mother." I will always miss her.