[NJFemmie]

I was very close to my mother - attached to her hip kind of close. One of the things I always loved and respected her for was that she always spoke to me as an adult. She never sugar coated things and told me whatever she felt straight from the hip. She was very big on emotionally preparing her children for "life" - since her own was incredibly hard and tumultuous.

My mother died when I was 14 - so I have no idea how she would have reacted to my lifestyle. My mother was a progressive woman for her time - in thought and action - so I would like to think that she would have been okay with it. My father, who was more the strict, old school, neanderthal-minded kind of man knew about my lifestyle - it was something that was rarely discussed - but at the same time, it was never a negative thing either. So, my logic is - if he was okay with it - my mom probably would have been.