Five Times Around the Sun

Today marks the fifth anniversary of my mother’s passing, and I have spent much of the day contemplating the passage of time. Has it truly been that long since she has been absent from my life? It appears that at least once daily in the past 1,825 days, she has crossed my mind in some manner. Reflecting on her does not cause as much pain as it once did, and most of my thoughts of her these days are filled with fond memories. Nevertheless, I still deeply miss her presence in my life. To assert that she shaped me as a person is a significant understatement. She shaped me in the same way that the Sherwin glaciation shaped the Yosemite Valley. One of the last things she said to me during her final hospital stay and was moments from death was, “I have expectations for you! I expect you to comport yourself.” During our last significant conversation, she instructed me to offer all of her worldly possessions to the family, ‘Don’t hold anything back,’ and to promptly dispose of anything that remained. In her vernacular, I was not to dawdle. I endeavored to follow her final wishes as best I could, but the final disposition of her remaining belongings took several years. She would not have been pleased.