After my mom passed, the thought of memorializing her life was so daunting because of the amount of characters, stories and family lore I gathered from her along the way. I had visually memorized every photo in the albums from her past. Pics of her winning homecoming queen to real estate functions in her 20’s/30’s, the wedding day with my dad when they were young and in love, her best friend Liz coming over dressed as a Planet of the Apes monkey for Halloween when we lived on Wellington Ave., pics of her growing up in a house just down the street from where I live now – A house she sold me in 2021, when I was no where near “ready” to buy a house but thank god I did because interest rates were at an all time low.

And although some people laughed at her “party-gal” lifestyle, she had a heart of gold and a street smarts for miles. If anything, I learned about the true definition of resilience and gratitude for life from her, which I am forever grateful for.

I had been compiling stories of hers throughout the years, increasingly so towards the end of her life, because I just knew the clock was ticking. She was young when she passed (only 63), but the life she lived was grand, and she always made that known. For all that she went through, she always approached life with a zest that was almost “uncalled for”. She made new friends at every turn in her life (even if they stole her Forest Gump DVD) and always forged on with a positive mental attitude, regardless of what obstacle set in her way, and trust me, there were many.

During phone conversations with her (mostly towards the end of her life) she’d retell an old tummy-tickler and I’d anxiously hit ‘record’ because I knew I was capturing lightning in a bottle. Somehow she re-told each story with the same level of energy and accuracy (voices and all)…every single time, never missing a beat.
I am not embarrassed I captured these, in fact I am grateful I did.

I’d dangle the worm so she’d launch into the story … I can not tell her story but I lived along side it, so here I am giving the old ‘college try’ at explaining who she was and what she meant to me as an ‘only child.’