Re-reading the letters to turn them into a book was like going through the grieving process again. They are very emotional, and sometimes when I read them at book events, I still cry. Especially when the audience is in tears. But I also laugh a great deal..and that's the wonderful combination of emotions that readers share with me on this journey. We laugh and we cry. After all, our mothers did some crazy things....including mine, who decorated our northeastern South Dakota prairie yard with plastic pink flamingoes, when the native birds were ducks, geese and pheasants! I always wondered about that....and re-reading that letter makes me LOL.

Re-reading the letter about finally saying goodbye always makes me cry. As well as the letter about photos. A newspaper reporter who is writing a story about Mother's Day without mom asked me for a picture of Mom and me. I have vey few of those, because she didn't like being photographed. We have two family photos. I do have a photo, though, of my family standing beside her grave the day after we buried her. It was the hardest photo I've ever taken in my life.