Happy Birthday, Mom.

Nearly a year ago, I lost my mother to brain cancer. This disease plagued her from the time I was 12 until October of last year when God called this angel home. Today would have been her 64th birthday. I feel like I lost my mother a long time ago due to her failing health. Her first surgery to remove the tumor changed her personality (I used to joke that they removed the part of her brain that liked me :)). But she was never the same since. Her radiation treatments left her mostly deaf, but she was unable to learn sign language due to her short term memory loss from the tumor. She was severely unbalanced...to the point when I had Joe 5 years ago I could not let her carry him for fear she would fall. But when I was a young child....wow...what an amazing woman. I remember her cheering my brother and I at swim meets. Never thinking twice on driving us all over town to our activities. She made home cooked meals nearly every night after working as a teacher all day, which she did for 20+ years. She was a strict mother but had very loving moments. And even though our relationship the last few years of her life was very tense I will never forget the last time I saw her when she recognized me....I told her I love in and signed it to her in sign language...and she attempted to sign it back. Through my tears she knew I understood. She made all of my Easter dresses by hand, even two prom dresses after her first round of cancer. After being given a 2 in 10,000 chance of survival in the early 90s she saw many things until 2007, including both of her kids graduating high school, college, both get married, and meeting and loving two grandchildren. And although she will miss her last grandchild from me....I like to think she had a little part in us getting our little girl. I hope this year on her birthday she gets a well deserved party in heaven :) complete with roses (her favorite) and whatever cake she pleases as long as she doesn't have to make it :).

I love you, Mom. And we all miss you. Happy Birthday.

Here are a couple of pictures of my mother. One at Thanksgiving in 2006...not completely healthy but how I remember her most, and one of her holding Garrett just weeks before she passed.