Home now from Mom’s funeral weekend in Slope and Bowman counties, where there were tears and laughter and the opportunity to visit in person with Mom’s immediate family who were able to be in attendance and with the folks of my childhood home ground, including several who are older than my Mom.

Back to gardening and camping and hiking and … life — as I regain my bearings, knowing I had her in my life for more than 60 years, and she somehow found the courage to go on when she, only 38, and her siblings and their children buried their own mother.