today, june 30 is my mother's birthday.
Louise would be 77 years old today.
my father Chester passed away
from lung cancer (smoking)
on april 12, 1970.
I was nineteen.
she passed away 10 years later in 1980,
never having even tried to re-marry.
my mother said, "after you've had the best,
nothing else will do".
my memory of their marriage is one
of laughter and happiness through
the struggle of lean times.
we didn't have much money,
but I never knew.
they gave me a happy childhood.
my memory of my mother
is of her sparkling laughing eyes
and quietly worried nature.
