Dear Mom,

I guess that now that it's Mother's Day, I'll distribute this.

It's Mother's Day again, and I haven't seen you in a while... since 1996 to be exact.  I have visited the gavesite, and I sat upon the great granite stone into which we carved your name (and ten years later, Dad's).  I looked for you there, but I only saw you in the magnificance of your legacy, spread out below your resting place.

You were so much larger than life, it sometimes seemed I was child not to a woman, but a force.  People I didn't even know, told me my mother was an angel, but angels always seemed to me loveless and aloof (and sexless, if the Book is to be believed).  Those people did not really know, or could not comprehend, the complexity that was Hattie Larlham.

Living with a myth was hard at times, and sometimes even worse after I became adult and no longer shared your daily life.  But living with passion, courage and love every day that I had in this world with you was a life I would wish for EVERY child.

Mother to thousands, loved by more, remembered by all... I wonder if you know just how greatly your legend and legacy have grown; just how wide your influence reaches. I never shared your belief in god, Heaven or Hell, so it's pretty unlikely you do.  But I surely wish it could be so.

http://www.hattielarlham.net/

With all my love, undiminished by time, distance or death...

Your son, Charles.