A special birthday

Today is my mother's birthday. She would have been 83 years old, almost twice the age she was when she died. I think of her every day... Love never dies.

She taught me how to read before I went to kindergarden and my love of books and reading comes from that, and started me on piano lessons at age 5. She believed I could be a concert pianist, but she never reproached me when years later, I didn't have the passion for it. She took me to see Scheherazade and West Side Story. She told me I could be anything I wanted to be, and she gave me this great piece of advice when I was still in my teens and hurting over a perfidious boyfriend: It's easier to get out of a bad relationship than it is to get out of a bad marriage. Most of all she was an example of great courage because she did the right thing against all opposition (yes, Mum, you were right).