My mom – Carolyn Rita Gerding Boudreaux – died ten years ago today, five months shy of her 70th birthday. It’s difficult to believe that ten full years has now passed since that mournful day. As I’ve written often, among the many valuable lessons that my mom and dad taught my three siblings (Ryan, Mary, and Shannon) and me is to be almost physically ill whenever we might be at risk of experiencing any sense of envy of others or any sense of entitlement to that which we do not personally earn. This lesson was taught by words and example. My siblings and I cherish this inheritance – and we deeply miss our parents.
Here, again, is the essay that I wrote soon after mom died. It appears in full below the fold.
