I sit on the swing outside of my grandfather's house. It's a nice swing I must admit even though the paint is cracking and the chair squeeks. The night is dark, but I can still see lights illuminating homes in the quaint neighborhood of Beauford, North Carolina. It is Christmas Eve, and a sad one at that for this is the first Christmas without my mother. My father, mother and I come every year to visit my grandfather for Christmas. We live only thirty minutes away from grandfather in a dainty house overlooking the ocean.

My mother had cancer. She was diagnosed with leukemia at the young age of seventeen. Her father, who had lost his wife was miserable knowing that he would soon lose his best friend, Jamie. Jamie had only one year to live, or so they said. Her dreams were fufilled by a powerful young man named Landon who had every ambition to fufill her fantasies. Jamie and Landon soon married in the small church where she had grown up in. She described the wedding being beautiful and very white.

After they married, Jamie was said to live only for another year. I wasn't born yet, and I can't imagine how my father felt at the time knowing that his wife would be leaving him so soon just after they joined together.

My father told me stories of the survival of my mother. He never would have guessed she could have lived twelve extra years.

It's amazing this world I'l say. I'm only twelve, yet beyond years in wisdom and maturity. My mother whom I admire taught me everything and has yet to even though she is not here with me now. I give her my childhood with my life and my heart. I dream of holding her close to my heart, hearing her sweet voice. Even though she was so young when she had me, she knew exactly how to raise me despite what elders said.

My mother is my hero, and this is why. She has pushed me for the stars and has me yearning for more. I don't know how lucky I was to have been born from this woman. Jamie. Mom.