I finished this mosaic yesterday. I've had the idea to do this for a couple of years. I saw some Dias de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) altars to ancestors one November, and they were very artfully done. Memorials to those who had passed on. I thought I would like to do one for my mother, and I knew then that the centerpiece of it must be the big spoon that my mother had all her life, as far as I can remember. When I helped her write her will, I told her to leave me that spoon.

A couple months ago one of my brothers gave me a shadowbox he had created with things that belonged to our father. And again, I thought, I have to do an altar for Ma.

The things in the mosaic all have to do with Ma. She loved bright colors. She played cards. The photos show her at age 7, 21 and 88. She loved birds, expecially cardinals. The pin from her sorority is in the mosaic. The yellow paper is something she wrote for me. She loved baseball, particularly the St. Louis Cardinals, and all things Native American (she was one quarter Cherokee).

Today I showed the mosaic to my daughter, Diana. Her first comment was, "That's my spoon! That's my pancake spoon!" Ma used to make pancakes for her using that spoon, when Diana was a little girl. Unbeknownst to me, Diana had been wondering what happened to that spoon since Ma passed on. She didn't know I had it. I suppose I shall have to leave it to her when I go.