This is one of my favorite photos of my mother. She would have been between 4 or 5 years of age here, living with her family in Racine, Wisconsin. She had this taken without her parents permission and got into trouble because they then had to pay for them.
My mother passed away on June 6th of this year. Since then, the most difficult thing for me is figuring out what to do with all those thoughts and experiences I would have normally shared with her. We talked several times a week by phone and she continued to send letters with newspaper clippings that she thought I would find interesting between calls.
My mother taught me to love nature and whenever I witness something interesting, I would always make a mental note to tell her about it during our next conversation. After three weeks of trying to stop those thoughts from popping up, I will store them here for safekeeping.
A quote I came across right before I went home to visit my mother for the last time is one that really rings true, it is from a book by Alice Sebold --
"Dead or alive, a mother or lack of a mother shaped one's whole life."
