Just a thought in passing but an important one. Of all the experiences in my life, beginning from the first thing I ever rememebered, the ones that included my mother, and then again as a teenager when my parents divorced and it was just the three of us, my mother, my baby sister, and me. Young beautiful ladies in the world, making it on our own, each for the very first time, but in a different way. My mother worked three jobs just to support two growing daughters, each in her own awkward stage of life. My mother is well educated, college degree, but still had to hold down a full time job, and part time jobs that took up her weekends and evenings, just so that her daughters could go to school, have friends, be in clubs, and do the things that kids like to do. Looking back on all those times,I always loved them the most. And even though they were hard times, they were the happiest times I could ever remember having. I wish that when I am no longer of this earth, that they (my mother and my sister) know that. They were my best friends. I have had many so called best friends, but those relationships were never fulfilling like the ones I experienced with those two women in the years we spent as a family unit. Even when my parents were married and I had the benefit of two working parents, a nanny, and all the family a person could choke on, it was never as loving, real, and satisfying as those days. My mother was dealt a hard blow, when I was 14 but she kept her head held high, and taught me that I have every reason to do the same. My mother shaped me, and molded me. And the three of us learned together how wonderful we truly are. To me, this is what a real family is.