...10 years..

It’s been 10 years since my mother passed away.  It’s hard to get my head around this.  It seems like she is still here.  I think about her every day.  I still have times when I think, “I should call Mom and tell her…”  She was a very important part of my life.  

In the 10 years that she has been gone she has missed many things.  She’s missed graduations from college, the weddings of 2 of her grandchildren and the births of her 2 great-grandchildren.  She would have loved these two little people and they would have loved her.  We tell them things about her all of the time, keeping the memories alive.

She’s missed Christmas and Thanksgiving, family trips and parties.  I guess you could say that she really hasn’t missed these things, we’ve just missed having her here with us.  I guess you could say that really she has been with us for all of these things.  She’s been here in our hearts, in the traditions that we carry forward that where hers and in the people we’ve become because of her.

I remember calling her when I was a new wife and later when I was a new mother and asking for advice.  Sometimes she would just listen, sometimes she would give advice, sometimes she just laughed and said, "Good luck."  Now my girls call me.  The great circle of life.  

I remember thinking when I was young and foolish that I hoped I wouldn’t turn out like my mother.  Thankfully, my wish did not come true.  I have more of my mother in me than I realize.  I catch myself saying things that my mother would have said, doing things that my mother would have done, being the person that my mother was.  And these are good things.  

Mom, I miss you everyday and I can’t believe it’s been 10 years.  It seem like yesterday.