I’ve been asked about my relationship with my mother after that tumultuous childhood, and if I hated her for the childhood I’d had. No. Just no! My mother was one of the warmest kindest people I know. Her alcoholism was, as we now recognize, a sickness and not a character flaw. Sadly, she never saw that. Her own upbringing (think Grandmother in my book) left her with a feeling of being unloved, and she was sure that her bout with alcoholism was an act of evil. She would never talk about it, and that makes me so sad, even today, even after all the years that she’s been gone. I loved her then, and I love her now, and am so grateful I got the chance to know her as a kind loving adult with a killer sense of humor. Miss you to this day, Mom!