My mother is going to be 77 years old in October.
I turned 50 in February.
I have three children (21,20 and 18), yet my mother is still my mother. And still mothers me. I have been having 'issues' that affect my health and let's be honest here - any of us that are parents realize that children really don't care (especially 21,20 and 18) about what is going on in a day-to-day life of their mother.

Perhaps this reflection has to do with the novel I'm in the process of writing that involves a mother who gives up a child at birth only to be reunited later in life. And this novel also involves the mother who adopted that child and has her own biological children and struggles with that -- only to then be faced with her sons' reaction to his 'real' mother. OR perhaps this reflection has to do with the novel that has just been released that has to do with a girl who is left all alone and then turns inward and how does she cope? How does she figure out how to become a mother without a role model?

All I know is that this afternoon at 2:50 PM my phone rang and my mother was on the other end and all she wanted to know was how I was doing. That's it. Simple question. And now I'm sitting here crying because I know my mother cares and there are so many people wandering aimlessly in this world whose mother's are somewhere out there wondering where their children are.

Parenting is a full time job, and it doesn't end when your child moves out. It doesn't end when they go to school, or when they fall asleep. Because the real truth is...A mother is always a mother.