When I close my eyes, in the still of the night,

I can almost feel your arms wrapped around me so tight.

I can hear your voice whisper in my ear…

My mother passed away 20 hours ago. This is not easy for me to write, because it is so fresh. But when I was younger, my mom always encouraged me to write as a means of coping with whatever I was feeling at the time, and I know she would want me to continue writing.

In November 2009, my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, but had a good prognosis. She underwent a surgery in January 2010 to remove the cancer only to discover that it had spread. She bravely went through many…