“and yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had love and been loved back. she was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. a mother. a person of consequence at last.”

“A man cannot tell whether a woman is in love with him or his security blanket until she is financially and psychologically independent enough to leave. Until a woman has learned how to leave, even she cannot be sure she has learned to love.”

“She did not believe he could have really gone, because for her, to leave the person you loved was impossible.”

“She laughed when there was no joke. She danced when there was no music.
She had no friends, yet she was the friendliest person in school.”

“Could she sing? (Was it nice to hear when she did?) Was she pretty? Was she a good friend? Could she have been a loving mother? A faithful wife? Have I got a sister and does she favor me? If my mother knew me would she like me?”

“My mother loved children -- she would have given anything if I had been one.”

“Mom is the person who gave you life. She is the sweet and strict friend, the teaching, the protection. Mom, she unconditionally represents love.”

“A woman’s beauty lies in her piety and loyalty. When a man leaves the house, he leaves his trust, wealth, love and respect in her hands and if she opens that up to another man, then I’m sorry to say, I don’t consider that a woman but rather a non-woman.”

“After all, a woman didn't leave much behind in the world to show she'd been there. Even the children she bore and raised got their father's name. But her quilts, now that was something she could pass on.”

“She was my mother and she would not leave me. This I had simply accepted and expected. I had no more thanked her for it than i did the sun for shining on me.”