My mother is a huge fan of ghost stories. Every Wednesday she sits and watches Ghost Hunters hoping just maybe she's catch a glimpse of a real ghost. She's had several paranormal experiences in her life already. Once, while out collecting wild vegetable for dinner, she happened upon a swimming pond her and her friends frequented. As she waded into the water to gather the plants, she felt something grab her ankle and pull her under. She was very lucky that she was not alone. Her older brother fished her out of the water and saved her life. she told everyone what had happened but they didn't seem to care. A few months later she was at the pond again with friends who wanted to swim. She refused to enter and repeated her experience. one of her friends, a very pretty young girl of 14 or 15 disappeared under the water. She floated to the surface a week later where she was promptly fished out and buried proper. Ever since, my mother doesn't enter any body of water unless she can see the bottom.

Late one evening, my mother couldn't sleep, so was lying in bed listening to the noises in the night and staring at the ceiling. Then she discerned a movement at the foot of the bed. A very large shadow of a figure had stood up from the bed and turned towards her. It nodded its head once and walked out the door. She swears to this day that it had to have been her guardian angel. The figure had been far too large to either of her parents.

Fortunetellers would roam the country side and give palm readings pretty regularly. My grandmother loved to have her fortune told. One time she had her palm read, my mom was around 10. The gypsy turned directly to my mother and asked her, "Why are you moving so far away? why are you going to be gone for so long?" The gypsy didn't know the answer but she did know that my mom would leave Thailand and be gone for a very long time. In 1969, two years after I was born, my father was transferred to Japan. In 1978, my mother was able to visit her mother for two weeks, but hasn't been back since.

My mother has one of the most eclectic philosophies regarding religion I know. We often make the trek to Caesar's Palace where outside there is a beautiful statue of Buddha and sand pots to hold incense. She always burns three sticks as she prays and makes wishes for good fortune for all those around her. she is constantly saying "God will get you/them for that!" and every time we visit my sister and the kids I have to bring my tarot cards so I can give everyone a reading. She has attended a few of my Temple's get-togethers and loves the concepts of paying respects but for the aspect that it's "just like in the old days." Paying respects is where we bow or curtsy to one another and address one another as m'Lord or m'Lady, but she has yet to attend a calendar ritual; a sabbat.

She is far too busy. For those of you who read my stories regularly, you know that my boss is not faring very well. He has a nerve degeneration disease of some sort that has yet to be diagnosed and the treatments sometimes make him more ill than the disorder. My mother tends to him faithfully. She does his shopping, takes him to his doctors appointments and always ensures that she is there whenever he pulls up to the store so that she can walk him in and then walks him out when he is ready to leave. My boss is elderly, in his late 70's. Ever since my mother was little she has always had a penchant for helping the elderly. Whenever I ask her to tell me stories about what her life was like she always says that she's worked hard all her life. Her main duty was to carry water from the well to the house. A heavy job indeed for such a young girl, but it never bothered her. After school instead of playing with friends, she would go to the neighbors and fetch their water or do small chores around the house for them. Whenever we are together and we see an elderly person or couple, she always comments on how adorable they look, or how sweet they seem.

But it's not just the elderly. Children, too. Our employees often have children and my mother always gets them something for Christmas and birthdays, if she knows about them. They are always functional items, of course, like winter coats or clothes. Sometimes she'll bring cases of soups, cereals, or other canned or boxed food to ensure the kids will have something to eat. My mother is an angel manifest on the earth.

And then there's us, her own children. My sister is the grandchild maker (at the moment) so we often visit her to see the kids. There is Xavier (not ex-zavier, just zavier) who turned ten this year and Morgan, who will be five at the end of the month. My mother tends to dote on them immensely. They have want for nothing if they ask. Whenever they visit to spend the night, it's not unknown for my mom to fix several meals in order to please them. Morgan sleeps right in the center of the bed between Grandma and Poppa and morning breakfast is always a grand affair in a household that never has breakfast. As fastidious as my mother is about a clean house, whenever the kids visit, that tendency is put on the back burner. and then after the whirlwind of the visit is over, the house is yet again set to rights.

My brother is a successful businessman who owns the Sports Shop out at the District in Green Valley and in the newly opened Town Square. If you need any sport logo clothing, let me know. So, not only did my mom help my brother finance the opening and construction of both stores, she also shops there regularly to ensure that he makes money and always refuses the discount he or any of his clerks try to give her. Every weekend you'll see her sporting her Green Bay outfits designed by Alyssa Milano and on occasion it will be the Cubs. She's also a huge fan of Tiger Woods. I think it's because he looks a lot like her son (my brother) and the fact that he's half-oriental.

And then there's me. Always there to help clean up the messes I get myself into and always has the best advice so I can't get into the messes I get into...if I were to consult her first, of course. My mom was the kind of mom that was always in the audience whenever I had a recital, a competition, or a spelling bee. Once, my high school choir class was invited to sing at a Mormon church here in town. Her and my sister came to watch, and even though they were singled out because of their coloring (in a nice way), she remained through the entire recital. She comforted me when I failed (2nd place in the spelling bee: wharf) and congratulated me whenever I succeeded. She made chocolate cake for me every year on my birthday because it was my favourite. For a couple of years she sewed many of the outfits I wore to school, even though some were the ugliest patterns you have ever seen, they were very well constructed. She stitched damn near every single Halloween costume until I turned fourteen. She ensured I had lunch every day for school and when I had field trips somewhere she always made my favourite: sticky rice and one sun beef, all wrapped in two balls of foil in a paper bag so I could just throw everything away and not have to carry a lunch pail. I was always the envy of every other kid for that. Whenever I was put on restriction she let me go out and play anyway, as long as I was home before Dad got home. I could go on and on.

When she does get to relax she likes to gamble. About once every other week or so, we get off early and go get lunch together. If it's not one of the stations, then it's Jerry's Nugget. We eat, talk, and then gamble. The one thing she will not do to relax though, is go to the movies... with me. I took her to go see Lord of the Rings. It was, of course, the first of three movies. A point I must have forgotten to mention. As Frodo and Sam crest the hill and look upon the valley of Mordor where they must travel next, the credits start to roll and we sit in our seats. The house lights come on and we are still sitting in our seats. Out of respect, I'm not moving until my mother does, and she's not moving. The other movie patrons begin to exit the theatre and we are still sitting in our seats. I asked her if she was okay. she was looking at the rolling credits on the screen. I thought maybe she was searching for someone she knew by name. She finally turned to me and asked, "What happened?"

"What do you mean? The movie? This is just part one, Mom, we have to come back when part two comes out."

The look on her usually effervescent face turned into a grimace. "Oh-ma," she exclaimed, "why you bring me to movie no finish?" The entire remaining theatre-goers laughed audibly. Too funny.