10th Anniversary of Mom's passing

I woke up this morning and found an email notification of a Facebook post. A friend I knew from our old church was reminiscing his younger brother passing a year ago. Suddenly it dawned on me that my mom had passed away ten years already. Not that I didn't know but it took someone who is still raw from his loss to bring me back to the 8am moment on Feb 14 2002 at Assisi when I watched my mom breathed her last.

I thought of her very often last year because that was the 10th anniversary I took her to Floriade. I have succeeded at remembering her living and not dead. So easy for another to just flip your memory around.

Mom had always loved pink roses and red carnations. As she grew older she preferred tulips but for practical reasons she loved orchids because they last a long time. Since when did she switched to yellow and purple? Must be sometime after I got married and moved out. I knew she was always impressed with yellow roses and do not like white ones very much. I even knew over time she traded her love for pink roses to peach ones. I used to pick them for her. I guess because young love must mature? You see, she inculcated in me the love for flowers. When she was not able to go out any more, I prepared on a notebook PC hundreds of beautiful flowers photos I downloaded from the Internet.

My best shot from Floriade 2002. It had turned out to be yellow. For a while it was the screensaver on my phone.