My Mother's Birthday

Today is my mother's birthday. She would have been 74, but she died in 2000 at the age of 56 - just one year older than I am now.

She had pancreatic cancer, which is a terrible cancer and one that is almost always fatal. You know if even Patrick Swayze and Steve Jobs can't beat it, with all the money they must have had, it's not something the average person has much chance of surviving.

This is a "Glamour Shots" photo of my mother circa 1993:

She would have been 49 when this was taken. Who would have thought she wouldn't be with us just seven years later?

I was 37 years old when my mother passed away. My experiences with death at that time were few - only my grandfathers and relatives who lived out of state and thus not exactly "real" to me anyway. I would like to think I would handle it better now that I am older, but there is no point in second guessing such things. You do the best you can at the time with what you have, and if that doesn't suit, it was still the best you could do so the outcome would not have been different.

She would not have liked to have been an "old woman" so this is pretty much the way she will always be remembered, looking beautiful as she approached 50. Forever young.