THANK YOU MOM !

For those of you who visit this site regularly, you may have noticed that I have been absent for several days. Many thanks to John for holding down the fort! I returned from Rhode Island yesterday where I have been since last Friday. My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's several years ago and Saturday morning at 1 AM she finally lost her battle with this debilitating disease which took from us and from my mother a very vibrant and beautiful lady! My brother and my two sisters were at her bed side with me when she momentarily opened her eyes as we told her she need not fight for us any longer. I write this post first as a tribute to my mother and second to share with you where my beliefs and conservatism came from. Many people believe that we discover our beliefs of this nature as we grow through maturity and face the daily grind of life. I beg to differ. Although my mother was very uninterested in politics, (she last voted for President Kennedy and then as she shared with me, only because he was, "good looking"), her values and beliefs were the foundations that were instilled within us that made each of us who we are today. My brother, a conservative and whom I admire more than any person alive for through this family crises when constraints beyond my control kept me from being there as I would have liked, Kevin displayed a strength and fortitude in heroic proportions that I'm not sure I could have mustered. Making all the right decisions in the best interest of my mother in spite of the sorrow. My two sisters that my brother and I never new as we grew up yet Norma, who like my mother is uninterested in politics yet still displays that same sense of values as I and Shirley who like me is a conservative and proud to be one. These values DO run in the blood and are instilled in us from birth which because of my mother, who is now dancing with the angels, have created a bond in our family that will last us throughout our lifetime. My mother was always a happy, loving and kind soul who had a smile or a hug or a funny remark that would make even a bad day good. Even at the last when she opened her eyes after being so un-responsive for so long, she bound us together in the love that she had for each of us and the values that she gave us. We then pass these wonderful values along as I have to my son and my brother and sisters have to their children. They then in-turn pass it on to their children. So in all of us, her legacy, my mother will live on for many generations to come! Thank you Mom for all that you gave me and for being you! I love you and will miss you every day!

A grateful son,

Ken Taylor

Eva Taylor June 6, 1924 - August 6, 2005