As each year draws to a close we see on television the names and faces of all the famous people that have left this world. This year that list includes my mother. She will live forever inside of me, as long as I live, and in the pages of the book that we worked on together.

And if I can make it through just one more day of this year, 2011, the most painful year of my life, then maybe I'll be able to say, as she said, that "We Never Lost Hope."