Mom in my memory

I'll always think of Mom in context. She was never not doing something productive, so my deepest impressions of her face and her form and her presense are all combined with a specific place or time.

• Watering her flower beds on Summer evenings; the sound of hose spray through open windows.
• The serious look on her face when she was driving and thinking of something else.
• Her basket of stationary and a continual arsenal of encouragement at the ready.
• Balancing her checkbook at the kitchen table with bank statement and calculator.
• The look on her face and lean of her head when she listened.
• The first silent breath when laughing hard.
• Tapping a pencil (eraser end) against her mouth while trying to remember.
• Meal planning calendar and grocery list on the fridge door with magnets.
• "Here kittykittykittykittykitty!"
• Her fingernails (I was always jealous).