Tenderness & Love: Mackey at 100

My mom died on May 1, 2007. Our loss of her shook us all, and at her memorial, we listed 87 lovable things about her ("Mackey").

Now, 13 years later in troubling times, I read the list and think of times that will never be real again, except in my memories. However, her tenderness lives on, and although we can be hard, we all are tender and soft within and so was she.

I won't list all 87 lovable things about Mackey. One was when I was writing my first book and had 50 minutes to make FedEx with the manuscript without defaulting on my contract. I was at Kinko's and realized that 10 pages were missing. I called her, she drove 3 miles to my house, taught my youngest son who was 8 how to reboot the computer, and downloaded the pages, then drove them 2 miles to meet me and help insert the pages into the document. We shipped them off.

What a wonderful woman. How lucky we were to be in her heart.

Some of the frivolous things are the most important. At age 3, my first memory of my mother is that she had a white, crocheted, pull-string purse with lipstick. I had a miniature version with candy lipstick. I still love lipstick to this day and no doubt my love of it activates "Mackey Circuits."

She exists within me, her circuits, and in my brother and sister-in-law, and the six of our children. Mackey lives within each of us and always will.

Perhaps bring to mind some tender memories and savor them as the essence of what is good in life.