Yesterday was my mom’s birthday. February 12. She always shared it with Abraham Lincoln, which seemed like a pretty good omen. She was a proud Aquarius, and she loved the water. She called herself a water baby and loved to swim.

I lost my mom in 2011 and I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t think about her. Whenever I’m traveling, which I’m fortunate to do a lot, on arrival I always want to call my mom and report in. She appears to me in many of my dreams. Sometimes she still makes me crazy in these encounters. Other times, there is nothing as soothing as just being near her. Whenever I’m at home, something will happen or a thought will hit me, and I’ll want to speak with my mom. So, I guess you could say, she’s still with me because I think of her a lot, both sleeping and waking.

The picture below was taken when she was, what? 3 years old, I’d guess. I love it. Her eyes were the most luminous shade of light blue and even this black and white photo captures their incandescence. I’ve never seen that color of eye in anyone besides my lovely mother.

I’m fortunate to be a mother myself and sometimes, when my son frustrates me and yet I still forgive him and love him to pieces, I think of my mother and how much I must have frustrated her. Yet I know that no one ever has or ever will love me the way she did and I thank God for having had her as my mother. Rest in peace, Linda Busey. You were loved in return to the same degree.