Random Thoughs About my Mom

Random thoughts about my mom: 

My mom loved crossword puzzles and the color red.  She was a "night owl", and we'd often have a midnight snack together.  I have countless memories of laying at the foot of her bed having late night chats about anything and everything.  If she could have lived anywhere, she'd have chosen Hawaii- she visited there many times throughout her life. I loved her with my entire heart. She loved to crochet, and always had a stash of baby blankets on hand. She used to call me "Sarah-Sarah".  Although she never got a driver's license, she learned to drive a standard transmission in Fenway during rush hour.  She sang soprano in her church choir.  When I found out she had cancer, I told her I couldn't live without her.  Bobby pins and craft glue make me think of her.  She was the second youngest of ten children, and she had nine of her own.  Our birthdays are three days apart, and I'm still learning how to celebrate mine without her.  She loved to read.  She didn't like to cook, but she could make a great shepherd's pie.  My friends still compliment her tuna salad.  She was afraid of heights.  She and my sister Faith collected pocket change from the year 1969 (my birth year) and would tape the coins to little hand written notes to me.  I have a pile of them!  Sometimes I feel like I knew everything and nothing about her.  If reincarnation exists, she said she doesn't want to come back.  She loved mystery novels and canned asparagus.  Her favorite perfumes were l'air du temp and Giorgio.  Her middle name was incorrectly recorded on her birth certificate as her first name; I knew her as Dorothy, but her family and my father called her Muriel.  When I was young, one of our favorite restaurants to frequent was "The Magic Pan"; they had the best garlic bread!  She opened a passbook savings account and saved to buy me my first car: A 1977 Chevy Camaro.  As I was getting ready for her wake, a gust of wind from a slightly opened window dislodged a bookmark from a pile of papers and blew it to my feet.   I stooped down to pick it up, and saw it had the drawing of an angel on one side and her name on the other.  She liked to fold paper napkins into shapes.   I still have the last one she made for me, probably for my birthday in 2008.  She was funny, stubborn, gentle, determined, simple, complicated, intelligent, willful, trustworthy, opinionated, dependable, and so much more.