My mother died young, but she taught me many lessons while I was still young. One of the most important of these was about CHOICES. She taught me that we each have to make our own choices in life, and not be swayed by others, not even our parents. More importantly, she taught me that it is better to have regrets about having made a poor choice, than to have regrets about not having tried, or to paraphrase Kris Kristofferson, "I'd rather be sorry for something I done, than for something that I did not do."

I miss my mother every day, and am so sorry that childhood DDT exposure and cancer took her from us at such an early age, but I\my bothers and I are so fortunate to have her in our lives and to have her lessons and support to remind us of her.