Remembering my mother, bright, on her final day

On December 30, 2006, we lost Lore Kephart, my mother. We remember her vitality, her curiosity, her integrity, her ingenious mind, her long laughter, the things she made, baked, wrote. The brightest flowers in the world are not, in fact, bright enough to honor her, but we leave them near her stone—a semblance of her soul.

I found the photograph above at my father's house a week ago. We startled when we saw it. It's the evening of the Wills Eye Hospital grand opening, an event my father had helped make possible by leading the philanthropic effort. My mother looks just like a movie star. She is listening, truly listening, one of her greatest qualities.

We miss you, Mom.