What a beautiful lady. RIP.

Oh, my mom? She was born in the wagon of a traveling show. Her momma used to dance for the money they'd throw. Papa would do whatever he could. Preach a little Gospel, sell a couple bottles of Dr. Good. You know. Typical stuff.

Your mom's coming to KC in concert at the end of this month.

She's very active.

I was born in Trinity Lutheran. Was she there in 1967? I doubt if I came out in the OR, but still.

This is a photo of my Mom from a trip up to my aunt's farm in Maine in about 1979. It's artificially enlarged and out of focus and the color is dull and it's oddly cropped, but it's my favorite picture of her. That's a lobster in her hand, I think.

http://i.imgur.com/3BdLU87.jpg

She's a career nurse here in Maryland, and has been for about 55 years now. Most of the time, she worked in the ICU with recovering heart attack patients and so on. Sometimes, however, one of us would go see her at work, and a gurney would go racing past, with some poor soul in horrific distress, while my tiny, kind-hearted mother, coated in blood, was kneeling on top of them, performing CPR as they whisked the patient into the OR. Now she's a nursing supervisor at the hospital near her home. She's saved more lives than I can count, and she's still going strong at 77. And she helps take care of her great-grandchildren. And in her spare time, she volunteers.

She's amazing. I think I'll call her in the morning.

After my dad walked out when I was born, my mother raised my sister and I on her own until we were 5 and 6 years old. No help. Three jobs. Too much pride to take welfare or anything like that. How she did it, I don't know....but it gives me all the respect in the world for her. We repaid her in our teenage years by giving her absolute hell while our step dad was on constant deployments for the military. She never gave up on us kids though.

She's loud, opinionated, and sometimes over steps her boundaries with my wife and kid, but I let her slide for all that she did.

And I forgot to buy her a ****ing card this year.

My mom was the second youngest of 13 children. She's led an ordinary life. She and my dad taught me how to love through their marriage (53 years and counting). She instilled a work ethic in me, taught me to always be thankful for what I have, and was always in my corner. I had a great childhood. She was a great cook and each of her four sons has taken up an interest in cooking through her influence. She had a great sense of humor and loved to have fun, just relaxing and talking to friends and family.

My dad and I went looking for nursing homes for my mom a few weeks ago. A couple weeks ago, a bed opened up. She's been admitted to hospice care, but with Alzheimer's it is really difficult to know how much longer she has. It could be months or years. Up to now dad has been amazing in taking care of her, but now it is too much for him. She hasn't been able to recognize me for years and during my week long visit only called dad by his name one time. During the week I was in KC, I was able to help dad take care of her: feed her, rub her back, and help to coax her down stairs, into the car, and onto elevators.

Dad and I talked about how Alzheimer's steals a person little by little. He called it the long good bye.

Here's a picture of my mom I took during my visit. The picture is crappy, but the person is solid gold:

I'm lucky. I have two freaking awesome moms. Parents got divorced and dad married aother winner. Wonderful women.

Repped.

So did mine. My stepmom that is. When I was a child, there was a shooting outside the hospital. My stepmom jumped on me and my brother and covered us. I was probably 7. I'll never forget it. She put her future stepsons ahead of herself. She's a glorious woman.

Wow my Mom was there that night when it collapsed. She was with a large group and luckily none were hurt. She walked over that skywalk several times during the night. My sister and I were home with the babysitter-we knew she was down there-it was a pretty big event. When it came across the news I thought I lost her. Finally made it home in the early morning after helping people all night. I laid in bed all night crying thinking I lost her.

She retired a school teacher in Texas and is still doing pretty good in life. Very amazing person and we are close. She likes every post of mine on Facebook and is a proud grandma of 5. I did send a card and i hope it get there on time.

Having moved away from Kansas City when I was all of 1, this is the first I've heard of the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse. I just Wiki'ed it. Holy s**t.

I remember it... barely. I was 7 years old when it happened.

This won't end well...

..and mine is an intergalactic princess who didn't find out til awkwardly later in life she had a twin brother. They optioned my story and are making a movie about it right now.

Sadly, when mom wasn't battling the darkside she was battling substance abuse and the bottle and really let herself go.

Dad's kinda checked out these days. Mopes around the house in one of mom's tunics, a pair of black yoga pants she can't fit into anymore, and a black suit vest. Talks to himself a lot- always carrying on, fixated on finding some imaginary one-armed man, and yelling at neighbors to get off his plane?

I should look into therapy.