Whenever she would be tired, or sick of shopping she’d buy one of these to eat while cruising the aisles of our local grocery store. She’d call it a treat to herself and pay for the empty box at the checkout line.

To this day, I can’t pass one without thinking of her. It’s these little things that bring the memories storming back, but it’s the big things that always make me wonder.

What would she have thought of 9/11? The war in Iraq? Boston winning the World Series? Or my graduation from college? What would she have said about the incredible inauguration that happened on Tuesday? What would she think about what I’m doing now?

It’s days like this, when she’d be turning 57, and exactly 7.5 years that I lost her that I wonder.

Happy 57th mom.