Ten Things I Love About My Mom ... In No Particular Order

Mom's been gone more than six years, but she's still with me every single day. Some of the items on this list are culled from the eulogy I wrote in 2002 - and they are as true today as they were then.

1. There wasn't a single creative impulse that she didn't foster in me and my sisters.

2. Just because I made something didn't mean it was wonderful. Criticism hurts when you're 15 years old, but when you're older, you realize just how much love has been tempered into that criticism.

3. Mom believed that we could be anything we wanted. There was nothing we couldn't do just because we were girls. Ambition was never undercut by sexism.

4. Mom would have been a fabulous lawyer – she had the two characteristics that every good lawyer needs – the ability to argue and the unshakable belief that she was always right.

5. Mom would start waterfights. In the house.

6. If Mom couldn’t be a lawyer, she should have been an interrogator for the CIA. I have never met anyone who could get someone’s life story (including all the gory details and deep dark secrets) quicker. I think if Mom had ever made it to Stonehenge, she’d have those standing stones talking nonstop.

7. It was nearly impossible to keep the truth from Mom. One way or another, Mom’s radar sensed a lie, a prevarication or a simple omission of fact, and somehow, we’d end up ‘fessing up.

8. Mom loved all three of her daughters beyond measure, yet she was never, ever blind to their faults. And she never shied away from letting us know that!

9. Mom would have voted for Obama. Even though she was a registered Republican. Sarah Palin was just too big an insult.

10. Mom was never an old lady, and no matter how sick she was she never lost her sense of self. Almost to the very end, she was as vibrant and active as if she was perfectly healthy.

Mom, I still miss you.