Saturday was the 101st anniversary of my mom’s birth. She left this world after 82 years and almost eight months as one of the sweetest people I have ever known.
Mostly I remember her sunny outlook on life. Her favorite songs were the optimistic ones: “Happy Talk,” “Smile,” “Get Happy,” and her favorite Frank Sinatra song, “Young at Heart.”
If her three sons got to disagreeing with each other, you could count on Mom starting to sing, “Happy talk, keep talking happy talk …”
But that Sinatra song summed up her philosophy best …
“Fairy tales can come true, It can happen to you if you’re young at heart. For it’s hard you will find to be narrow of mind if you’re young at heart … And if you should survive to 105, look at all you’ll derive out of being alive — And here is the best part: You’ve had a head start if you are among the very young at heart.”
Well, she fell a little shy of that 105th birthday, but she always was young at heart, and so she derived an awful lot out of being alive.
I miss you, Mom.
