Fabio

My Mom loved to read and when I say loved, I mean LOVED. Romance novels to be specific.

Not one for TV, I could always find her curled up with a book, either in bed or her favorite spot on the living room couch. She’d get lost in these stories, finishing a book in just a few days.

She and her friends would joke about her hobby, poke fun at her trashy ‘smut’ books with Fabio-like men on the inside covers. But, as much as she joked, I knew it made her happy and these books brought her joy - a way to escape the daily stressors of life.

My brother has always shared my mom’s love for reading. Caroline and me… not so much, or at least not consistently. In 2022 I tried to pick up reading more - I read 2 books. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot, but it was progress and I really enjoyed it. In a time where there is always a screen, I want to hold a book, to smell its pages and follow a story without the excessive stimulation that comes with TV or social media.

Living a half mile up the street from my parents, I used to see my Mom all the time. Yet I remember one day in May of 2022, for the first time in a long time, I reached for my phone to text her! To tell her how much I’m enjoying my book, ‘Where The Crawdads Sing’. She didn’t have a phone anymore nor would she know how to access my text if she did. I was so happy, that for a moment, a split second, I had that urge. That instinct reassured me that my mom will always be with me. No matter how much progress I make with my grief, she will always be a part of me.

Since my Mom has passed, I find myself picking up books more and more. I’m closing out 2023 having read a total of 12 books! It’s an activity that makes me feel closer to her now that I can’t run down the street and hold her hand whenever I feel like it.

- A New Year’s Eve note from my sister, Megan. Here’s to more reading in 2024! -