June 23, 2024- Once, when I came into the house, sobbing and full of self-pity, after being on the losing end of an acorn fight, Mom gave me a damp washcloth and reassuring hug, saying these things happen in life-and somehow they don’t knock us into a hole from which there is no escape. She continued, “We can only do that to ourselves.”

Every hole into which she has been knocked, over 90 +years, has seen Lila Mae Kusch Boivin climb out, ready for the next round, and winning a good many. She has been the inspiration for each of her four adult children, and was the primary safe haven for our little brother, especially in his last eight years of life.

When I called from Fort Jackson, on a Sunday morning of self-criticism and despondence, Mom told me that there was no way I should see myself as a failure-again saying that my critics and bullies would try their best, but “You graduated from high school, and will finish this Basic Training. If you want, after the Army, go back to college-and this time, make a go of it.” That, I did, and became a point of pride for my parents.

She attended all but one of her grandchildren’s weddings- Aram’s, in South Korea, simply being too far for her nonagenarian body. He and Yunhee made tracks for her Saugus home, as soon as they got settled in Dallas. She adores all of her grandchildren, and their spouses, to say nothing of the great grandchildren. This is reciprocated, and there was no sweeter sound than to hear three of them cheering “Great Grandma!”, as she entered the wedding hall, in Philadelphia, for the wedding rehearsal of my youngest niece and her husband-to-be, six years ago, last week.

All is still, in the days before I head back to her side, at least one more time-and if God wills, I will look into her eyes on Thursday morning and repeat what I told her, late last month: “I love you always, Mom.”