When I left home I left behind the greatest friend I would ever have. My mother and I were very close. Even though I was miles away, we talked every day, sometimes two or three times a day.  Many miles separated us, but I traveled that nine hundred and ninety two miles many times a year. I had to see her face! In the summer she always visited me, but that didn't stop me from making that trek at least four times a year and sometimes just a weekend visit.

I believe my mother suffered from "empty nest syndrome" because she always wanted her children and grandchildren around. I know part of it was she loved her children, all twelve of us. When her own children started leaving home she found others to nurture. She even told me that we needed to raise our children in the country, away from the city and solicited my children for the summer an dme to move back home.

To say she was a fun loving, free spirited woman was just the tip of the iceberg. Everyone loved her and it showed. Her home was never without family and/or friends.  She could be seen with a cigarette in her mouth or between her fingers at all times and dancing to the blues. She loved life! My mother was one of the best cooks the south has ever known, and she loved cooking. Her cakes sat a mile high! I looked forward to coming home because my favorites, coconut cake and pecan pie, were always waiting. All of us had our own favorite treats and she knew each one.

I miss my daily phone calls and the visits to my mother's home. Instead, my visits are weekly to a nusing home to see my mother who probably doesn't know who I am. There's no way to tell for she doesn't correspond to anything or anyone anymore. Alzheimer's Disease has raped her of her total being, has robbed her of mind and soul, and left her a mere shell of the person she once was. It's been very difficult to see such a vibrant human being diminished to this state and especially hard to have to watch day by day transformations of one so near to your heart. My heart is slowly mending but my mind goes back to the days when we hugged, laughed and talked for hours. I miss my mother, my friend!