“I used to live in Dothan and live in Colorado now. My husband and I were married for 16 years before we had kids so we had a firm foundation when we started a family. I was 40 and he was 43. I am a different mom and make different mistakes than I would have made in my 20s. It makes me appreciate the wisdom of my mother. We love our kids but they aren’t the central focus of our world, they fit in with us. I am also tireder as an older mom. My mom is 85 and tremors run in our family and she is at the point where she can’t feed herself sometimes, but her mind is still good. I hate to see her like that and I shake at times and see it in one of my sons. My dad’s memory is slipping and he didn’t recognize me last summer. That got to me more than I realized. Why doesn’t he remember me? Knowing all of that, there is nothing I fear. I have also learned that not all memories have to be good.”