Anne Corbett Borden

My dear sweet mom. Life was never easy for you but you made the best of it. You are the strongest most intelligent and most capable woman I have ever known. No, not just woman. Person. You never let anyone define you or put you in a box. Many did not understand you, but they respected you. Even as a child, you had a love for and understanding of animals that stayed with you throughout your life. You were an environmentalist and a nutritionist and an artist and a craftswoman and a lifelong learner. You had a strong sense of your own core values that guided you in all you did. You had an iron wall around you, 12 ft high with barbed wire all around the top, developed to protect you at an early age. But anyone who got through all of that protection, found a heart of gold and an ally for life. It was a prize worth fighting for! In the end, cancer brought you to your knees. You gave yourself over to a medical system you had never believed in, and that system forced you to spend your last years in a way that you would never have chosen. My heart was broken, watching you trapped in a mind and body that had taken everything you loved from you but kept you alive. But now you are finally allowed to have peace. My dearest mom, I thank you for choosing to be my mom. For teaching me and loving me and being my best friend. I do not know what comes next, but I know I have only lost your physical being. I will never lose your essence. And I hope, beyond all else, that your next adventure will be filled with love and joy. You deserve all of that and more. I love you Mom.