Norma

I’d like to thank those of you who’ve expressed such kind thoughts on news of the passing of Mary’s mom.

This week’s news cycle is full of what to the world must seem like larger issues. Muhammad Ali passed and I view him as a great guy who will be sorely missed. Hillary Clinton has emerged as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, which presents a conundrum for many of us who don’t like to face voting for her (the lesser of two evils still being, you know, evil). An inconceivably light sentence for a despicable crime, college and high school graduations, changing weather, business news – all of these affect more than a few people.

But it is the few people whose concerns have occupied my thoughts this week. The six who have lost their mother, the few who have lost their sister, or their grandmother or mother-in-law.

I don’t have anything profound to say about Norma except that I liked her and she was a kind and caring friend to me. And goofy, in her own way.

Perhaps the most profound thing I can share about Norma with folks who never met her is that when she passed, all six of her adult children were in attendance. Because they couldn’t not be. Because she was and always had been Mom.

A body could do worse than to raise six kids who become the adults who made sure she was never alone these last months.

Goodonya, Queenie!