Still love ya, mom

SHERYL AND I lost our mothers about a year apart. My mom passed away in 2005, just months before she was going to retire as an English teacher. She was looking forward to spending her remaining years reading, watching movies and visiting her grandkids.

Sheryl's mother died a year later while on vacation while passing through Minnesota. It's interesting how we tend to remember the people in our lives who are gone. It's random and funny and bittersweet at the same time.

With Sheryl, it will be something like a garage sale. "My mother loved garage sales," she says. She'll mimic her mother and father in the car on a Saturday morning. "Turn here Jerry turn here!" Wilma used to shriek. We both laugh when Sheryl remembers, especially the prayers for stop lights to change and Christmas gifts being given to her when they were found in July. Ahhh memories...

I was hit hard with memories this morning in guitar lessons. My mother loved John Denver, and I'm using "Leaving On A Jet Plane" in lessons because it's both simple and really challenging, no matter what kind of player you are. I used to roll my eyes when she'd put on a John Denver record, but now I realize why she loved him so - his songs are interesting and he was a really good 12-string fingerstyle guitar player.

Here is to hoping you remember your loved ones when passing by a random location or running into somebody they knew. It's a good thing!