Happy Birthday, "MAMA" !!!

With thirty minutes to go... I could not let this day pass without telling my MOTHER that even after thirty one years...she is still on my mind and still totally in my heart.

She left my life WAY too early, yet she has remained in my heart constantly.

I have a daughter that is her name sake. A daughter that was due on this very day. Complications caused her to be born on August 19... the date that my Mother died.

Eighteen years to the day that my Mother died, my daughter fought her way into this world.

I miss my Mother every single day.

I wish that she was still with us.

But God has plans that sometimes we can't understand .

I have come to believe that God sent me a present to make up for Him taking my Mother.

I have a daughter.

She is a best friend to me...has calves as thick as my Mother (a Leach girl trait) and fills me with joy.

I still miss my Mother, wish she were here every day.

But I have been blessed beyond belief with two of the greatest parents a girl could ever hope for, an upbringing that was extraordinarily wonderful and enlightening.

My Mother was a person that could do anything , could wrap people around her little finger...and they would feel grateful to be there.

She was taken from me too soon ... in my opinion... but has left me with the comforting fact that I was "ANN LEACH'S" daughter... and in retrospect... I was very lucky to have not only had her for a Mother, but for an example of what a GOOD person should be... not only how to live my life, but how to raise my own kids.

They flounder and wander, but my kids know ALL about their "GRAND MA" and I have no hesitation in saying that they will ALL find their way....

My Mother would NOT have it any other way.

I still dream of her.. and my Father.

In my dreams, they come to me...I know they have passed, but just seeing them in my dreams...I can smell them, I can almost touch them. It seems so vivid that it almost seems like a vacation... and it is ALWAYS so welcoming to me.

I may sound crazy... but if you have ever had parents as great as mine...I think that you could understand me.

They pop up in my dreams, and they are as real and as comforting as God can allow them to be.

I hope that I can make my Mother proud...My Diddy too.

I know that I lost them both too early... but what kind of person would I have turned out to be if I hadn't had THEM???

Happy Birthday, MAMA... I Love You, and I thank you for not only bringing me into this world, but making me the person that I am, and making me want to be the person, wife and mother that I know I CAN be!!

IT IS ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!!!


I will see you in my dreams... and you will be forever in my heart!!

Your daughter, KELLY