Memories can be just this simple….

Yesterday I did something that I have wanted to do for quite some time. I got this tattoo in memory of my mother. I’m 65 years old and I really miss my Mom. She had a catastrophic stroke and lived 7 years with aphasia. That means that she could jabber but not put a sentence together that meant much of anything.

The interesting part about aphasia-if you want to find it- is that music lives on the opposite side of the brain from speech. She could sing! It had to be the old songs that were firmly embedded. She wasn’t about to take on any rap music. Her anthem became “You Are My Sunshine.” We even sang that at her memorial service.

With Mother’s Day approaching and my folks anniversary this past week I needed to do this. It is an amazing amount of fun to get a tattoo at 65. The guy that did it — Chris at Flying Tiger Tattoo in Cincinnati, Ohio-was having fun with me. I explained what I wanted, we designed it together, and in no time I had this beauty on my foot. The top of your feet are pretty sensitive, but it wasn’t too big of a deal. Now I can put my best foot forward with my visible remembrance of the theme song that is playing in my heart.