In first person…Mom dished out guilt, well seasoned with humor

She would say, "Moms are allowed to make their children feel guilty because we (the children) started giving pain from the beginning with the birth process." She would tell us how she suffered with labor pains for "62" days. When she got upset with us, she would count to 10 and then say, "`Mother' is just another name for heartache. I would have been better off raising chickens!"

I think she wrote the book on clichés. She threw them around like confetti. I rarely understood the point she was trying to make. One of her favorites was, "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face." I would give a quizzical look and think to myself, "What does that have to do with anything?"

Mom always started swearing when she got in the car. I was 12 years old when I found out that "shmuck" didn't mean "lousy driver."

My mother was my friend when I was a teenager. She was there for me at the time in my life when I needed her the most. I have followed in her footsteps by using my sense of humor, using clichés and repeating her words to my daughters. "I only hope when you have children you have a daughter just like yourself!"