..and now with her gone it's up to you to be that goodness.
In her own way she was a greater warrior than I could ever be. If I think of the way that she took on certain conflicts in her life, all the while having to deal with a pair of Hellions like my brother and me..
-She was always at the beach, from early March until the storms would set in..
one summer we were all at the beach, the teenagers all in one spot and my mom a couple hundred meters further up with her friends.
*Away* from us.
So.. anywho, I was running across the beach, and slammed my toe into a brick that was just under the sand.. popped the toenail right up like the engine hood on a car.. blood starts spewing everywhere.. didn't hurt too much though so I hobbled to the lifeguard shack with two mates.
The lifeguard basically freaks out at the blood, and says that I have to see the doctor in town for a possible tetanus shot or whatever, and whether there was anyone would could drive me there?
'Well, there's my mom who's laying further up the beach...'
Great! Get her. She can get you to a doctor..
'Uhh.. -she isn't gonna like that..'
The lifeguard was persistent and asked which of my mates was going to inform my mother that her first born was wounded and in need of medical attention..
'Not me.'
'Not me.'
'I ain't doing it!'
'Neither am I.. she still hates me for screwing up her coffee the other day..'
'Hey! I'm a fragile individual!'(*)
'Oh for [censored]s sake fine, I'll go.'
The lifeguard was totally stunned at our responses.., especially when we could hear my mom still thirty meters outside of the shack and swearing like a marine, my other buddy turns to the lifeguard;
'Oh man, you're in sooo much trouble.'
Mom stomps into the lifeguard shack like a tornado in a trailer park, wearing a big moo-moo beach dress that sailed everywhere, asking what the hell her idiot son had done to himself *this* time?
'Uhh.. hi mom.'

The lifeguard tried one last feeble attempt at maintaining his position of authority and said that I needed a doctor to properly remove the torn toe nail and bandage it..
'screw that'
Takes a look at my toe, makes sure I hadn't broken it or anything stupid..
..and yanks the old toenail right off.
'Take yer foot, soak it in the salt water, that'll do it good and use some sand to let it crust over. We'll clean it properly this evening at home.. idiot.'
Gives the horrified lifeguard a last sour look as if she was still going to punch him or something, and then stormed out of the shack back to where she had her stuff muttering
'that you never had these problems with daughters.. daughters would've been niiice...'*That* woman is your mother?!I just nodded.
One of my mates towards the lifeguard as we left: 'Dude, you're soo lucky she didn't totally belt you one.. stay healthy bro, don't mess with his mom.'
(*) Yeah.. he actually said something to that extent.If I could be half the person she was...
