to my mother

 Today would have been my mother’s 78th birthday. Sadly, she passed away just under three years ago after a lengthy period of trouble related to years of spinal surgery and, ultimately, damage to nerves that prevented her from walking. My only consolation is that I got to spend the last Christmas and New year of her life with her, and it was a happy time. We ate out, we drank wine, we laughed and we talked. 

My mother inspired me throughout life with her kindness, compassion, generosity, vision, intelligence, and understanding of the human condition. She was extremely sensitive and suffered tremendously from the suffering of other people and animals, and she gave everything she had to give to provide my brother and I with the best possible life we could have. And it was a good one. 

To this day, my father is benefitting from the financial decisions that my mother made and some of the foundations that she built, and, following her ways, I have also built significant practices and skills to build my own financially independent world. Every day, and even more so lately, I wish that I could speak to her… to ask her for her words of wisdom and life advice. She always put things into perspective, she always encouraged my happiness, and most importantly, encouraged me to always form my own opinions, my own beliefs, and my own set of values. 

                  Happy birthday, mum. 



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