Sleep in Heavenly Peace

Three years ago today, my mother died of cancer, having never once lost a game of Scrabble to me.

I have another blog where I collect tidbits like that about others. I glean them from my local paper, which has the best obituaries I've ever encountered, the kind that make you wish you had known the deceased, the kind that really make you feel the loss of that possibility.

So here are a few more details about my mother, my sweet, fabulous, funny mother.

• My mother never once served turkey at Thanksgiving. We had Cornish game hens, partridge, duck, dove, anything but turkey.
• She was the only math teacher I ever had who made math exciting.
• Her skill at growing tomatoes in half-barrels was legendary.
• Mommy once bought a miniature golf course on a lark.
• My mother was the most capable woman who ever lived. She could do anything, including a fair bit of plumbing.
• She named her daughter for her mother-in-law, not out of a great love, but out of a great respect.
• Mommy allowed us numerous pets of significant destructive ability without ever once complaining, in spite of the fact that it must have irked her to watch her beautiful home take such a beating.
• One of my mother's front top teeth very slightly overlapped the other, which made her smile even more charming and infectious.

So that was my mother. I wish more people had had a chance to know her. She was, in every sense of the word,

lovely
adjective
1. Full of love; loving.
2. Inspiring love or affection.
3. Having beauty that appeals to the emotions as well as to the eye.
4. Enjoyable; delightful.
"lovely." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. Answers.com 29 Dec. 2005. http://www.answers.com/topic/lovely