Again my Mother comes to me in a dream: My hair is long, down to my waist long. I wake up and my hair is long, but not down to my waist, which it has never been, which is silly. Hers as a young girl was. When I was a little girl, mine was thin and my older sister’s hair …
It’s been 10 years since we celebrated Mother’s Day with my Mom. She died less than a year later in what was at the time a shock but now what I probably view as a blessing. Mom was in relatively good health but suffered from some COPD and probably was a borderline asthmatic. She died in her own bed, just …
Mom had a rare brain disorder called PPA, and she was taken too soon for me. She died four years ago today. I don’t know how to feel about this day, but I want to somehow honor her. She was the most beautiful person (inside and out) that I have ever known. She radiated joy and taught me how to …
A rerun from a few years ago. Because I can’t think of a better story to tell on Mother’s Day. I’m thinking of my mom on this Mother’s Day, as we all are. She’s been gone 3½ years now, but it seems like only yesterday I was making those semiweekly trips to Hettinger, N.D., to see her in the nursing …
My phone buzzes. It is Mom. Again. Third time today. Do I answer? Mom calls when she is distraught, when she has been walking the halls of the nursing home for hours, waiting for somebody to pick her up. Nobody comes. While wandering, Mom forgets she has a room and worries where she will sleep tonight. If I answer her …
On this Mother’s Day, a big shout-out to these two little bugs who made me a mama — not just any mama. A mama of twins! Here they are (above) in their Minnesota Twins garb, which friends felt we must have. I was a sucker for Oshgosh togs. Although not apparent in this photo, my house in those days was like …
My Mom, Phyllis Maxine (Boehmer) Fuglie, was born Oct. 10, 1924, at the farm home of her parents, Peter and Sophia (Aaberg) Boehmer, near Edmore, N.D. Her family moved to Saskatchewan for a short time during the Great Depression, where my Grandpa Pete took work as a farmhand to support his growing family. But after a few years, they returned …
A rerun from four years ago. Because I can’t think of a better story to tell on Mother’s Day. I’m thinking of my mom on this Mother’s Day, as we all are. She’s been gone 3½ years now, but it seems like only yesterday I was making those semiweekly trips to Hettinger, N.D., to see her in the nursing home, …
I didn’t cry when I first saw her but I wanted to. I held it in for a bit in an effort to stay sober and soak in everything. Changes. Changes like the time I came back from living in Grand Forks for a few years to Fargo and I saw the back of my dad’s head sitting in the …
It’s much easier to stuff lately. And it’s not like I don’t have the energy to feel, it’s more like I’m making the conscious choice to avoid feeling much of anything that relates to the distance between us. Like wearing a life jacket in a rainstorm, it makes my inner child think I’m protected. Something new has started where I …
Just this once, don’t listen to your mother. Go ahead and take her picture at Christmas. Take lots of pictures — neat or disheveled, busy or at rest, with or without grandkids or cats. Do it openly or, if she’s especially camera shy, go ahead and sneak up on her. Pay no attention to her protests. Ignore her attempts to …
The woman who was my mother would have celebrated her 100th birthday Tuesday. I wish I’d known her. I knew the mother, of course … but I wish I’d known the woman as well. Lots of us suffer from the same emotion, I think, looking back on the women whom we were closest to. I was fortunate to have Mom …