Mom, 1958

Dear Diary,

Mom passed away on this date in 2002.  I searched through my photos for an old photo of her for today and I realized that nearly all of them show her holding a cigarette.  Both my parents were smokers and both would die from the effects of it.  Of course, in 1958 no one knew the harmful effects of smoking.  Mom was only 79 when she died. Her brother, who died this past Monday, was 96.  He never smoked.

I've added a really old photo, taken in 1922, of my mom and her brother.  Such adorable children I've always thought.  When we look at old baby pictures, ours included, it is sometimes hard to connect the baby with the adult,  to make sense of the long road in between.  What we become in life is dependent on so many things.  Some of those things are within our control, others are not.  The truth of the matter is that we never stop "becoming".  We never stop giving birth to ourselves.  Even in old age the potential for growth and change is always there if we embrace it.


Look closely at the present you are constructing: it should look like the future you are dreaming
Alice Walker