Dear Mom,

It’s still so hard to believe you’re gone: 16 years, five months, and two days to be exact. The time certainly hasn’t flown by, but life sure does have a way of continuing, filled with events which can be quite distracting.

In the past decade and change, you’ve missed the births of your final two grandchildren (Giovanni and Vivian), and great-grandchildren (Loralei, Shaun Jr, and Hunter), the passing of Grandma and (step)Dad (not to mention Uncle Don, Aunt Lorene, Doree, Alvin, and quite a few from my dad’s family, including Dad), Tony and I finally getting married (it took 13 years and happened on April 1st, so…), Samantha and Anastasia graduating high school (Jared still has another year and a half to go), countless world tragedies, and even a few civil rights victories. Also, I started writing again (with some pieces in a few published anthologies), followed by getting the courage to finally stop lying to myself: our divorce was final in February 2015.

I almost forgot: they even rebooted Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Star Trek, made more Star Wars movies (for sanity sake, we’ll just ignore the prequal trilogy), and released the rest of the Harry Potter books and the corresponding movies. Pure geeky heaven!

I even met the most amazing man. ~swoons~

I think he’s positively certifiable due to everything he’s witnessed and been subjected to in the three years we’ve known each other, but he’s proven he can’t be scared off, and shows no sign of giving up on me and the kids. ~giggles~ You and Dad would love John (believe it or not, so would Grandma); everyone does. :-) Plus, his four kids round out the Monster Army nicely! Seeing them interact, you would think they had been raised together. :-D

~sigh~

Ma, you died way too soon, for many reasons other than what you’ve missed over the years, but mostly because we all miss you, and there isn’t a day which passes that I don’t wish we could talk or bug the hell out of each other. You always had a knack for driving me crazy, while also encouraging to take those risks which scared me the most. And there have been many times I could have used that swift kick of motivation.

Happy 65th birthday, Mom! There have been many African Violets who owe their continued existence to your early passing, but we’d happily sacrifice each and every single one just to have another day with you. Even if it meant browsing Black & Decker tools.

Oh, and for the record, I think David Tennet would have been your second favourite Doctor, partly because one of your hands-down favourite crushes was his father-in-law, Peter Davison. ;-)

<3