“Give me one kiss and I’ll be happy. Just, just to be with you. Give me, give me, a chance to be near you. Because, because I love you.” I sang these lyrics to my mom trying to get her to remember who sang this song. She couldn’t recall. Always responsible for teaching me about pop music through the decades, I was shocked that she didn’t know who sang that song with such clear lyrics being presented to her.

I didn’t realize until later it wasn’t that Michele didn’t know the very famous Dave Clark Five song, in fact it may have been one she held dear to her heart. The reason she didn’t know what song I was singing is because she was leaving. She was on her way out of this world and my conversations and questions were no longer her number one priority. And ever since that time my mother has been lost to me, my best friend and musical confidant.

I knew that the dark was lifting when a few years ago I found that song, I found who sang it and I bought it and the first time I listened to it I cried. I cried because it reminded me of my wonderful mother. I cried because when I asked her about this song I dreamed of a romantic love, one that I longed to be near and by the time I found it and could listen to it I dreamed of the love I had with her that was no longer at my fingertips. “Give me, give me, a chance to be near you, because, because I love you.”

What is here today is gone tomorrow, a cliché perhaps, but the truth. No love should be taken for granted, not even for a second, because love is the source of life within us. My mother’s love was the source of life withinme for 22 years and without her I’ve been forced to find a new one. She could not be my everything forever because the time would come sooner or later for me to realize that the source of life and love I need I can give to myself.

Because my mother loved me so much, I have the strength to keep going without her. I will miss her forever and I will forever hope and believe she is at my shoulder. Along my journey I will have the music that she and I always listened to together and each time I hear a song I’ll be reminded of her, all that we had and all that lays ahead.