Happy Birthday, Mother

She would have been 98 years old today.

No one like her in the wide, wide world. A tough little thistle of a woman, humble and quiet all her days, self-effacing when she probably shouldn’t have been, displaying her fierceness only if someone or something threatened her children. “Y’all are my whole world,” she used to say, and she proved it with her life.

We never understood each other, but we had some fine, fine times together. I have her eyes, and she has my devotion.

I miss you so much, Mother. And I believe we will see each other again.

Happy Birthday. I love you so.

~ S.K. Orr