We are so pleased to have our aunt do a guest post this week about our mom. However, before you dive in to her post, we thought a little background would be helpful: “Auntie Lana” as she is affectionately known in our family, is our dad’s youngest sister and, as you will discover, was more like a sister than a sister-in-law to mom.

Many years ago, over coffee, a friend indignantly described a radio program portraying older women as invisible. I was much younger at the time and the topic just didn't resonate with me. I tried very hard to pretend that I was interested but my mind was on other "younger" topics.

In case you were wondering, we also had a father. That handsome man is our father, Harvey, and although he was not a tall man, he was a giant in our eyes. As much as Mom influenced our upbringing with her easy going approach to parenting, ( ie. it was often worth your while to argue and push back), Dad was the steady, firm and sometimes maddeningly stubborn hand on the wheel. His was the ultimate and final authority. “Wait until your father gets home” was enough to bring absolute silence on our part. Although this blog is about Mom, we have just marked the 8th anniversary of Dad’s passing…

This age old question has finally been answered!! In our family it was our mom Betty!!

When an elderly person passes away, there are usually memories and memorabilia left behind. Mom was no exception. Her passion was taking pictures....many of which featured bodies with no heads, blurry images and some selfie attempts that were of poor quality to say the least.

Our mom always had friends, lots of friends. It seemed like everyone who crossed paths with her became her friend in short order and many friendships endured for a lifetime. It was always a bit of a mystery to us how mom managed to strike up and maintain so many friendships.