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Good morning friends!

 Greetings from sunny Tucson this Wednesday at day break. I hope all are well and flu free wherever you call home. I finally went back to work yesterday, but still can't get rid of an annoying lingering cough. I suppose next year I will reconsider getting one of those goverment issued, mind controlling, flu shots they seem to want to inject everyone in the country with.

 Now that it's 2018 and I'm fully focused on completing my second edition, I wanted to take a day to remember my dear departed mother. Her birthday was this past weekend, and she would have been 78 years young. Her name was Maria Antonieta, named after some French queen from long ago, who I guess lost her head after eating too much cake or something! Fortunately for my momma, she wasn't too fond of sweets and didn't care much about cake either, so she was able to hold on to her head for the duration of her 74 years here on earth! She passed away in May of 2014, after losing her six year battle with a deadly autoimmune disease. If you have lost your mom, then you know the pain and hole it leaves in your soul, that only a loving, caring mother can fill. She died before I departed on my cross-country tour, and probably would have been worried sick everyday I was on the road. That was just her way, and not too brag friends, but the Johnny Man was her favorite. My six siblings can attest to that fact! She was too sick to see me get my wrting career off the ground,or read my books, but I think she would have been proud of my fifty-state journey.

 Mother had a difficult path in life, starting with losing her own mum when she was six. Her teens and married years were extremely challenging to say the least, only to find herself a single mother of seven at 33 years of age. Unschooled and unskilled, she worked herself to the bone for years at a laymans wage, to give us the best possible chance in life. She never dated or even considered another relationship, choosing to devote herself completley to her kids and grandkids until the day she died. Still, she was able to find some joy in life and share all her wisdom and love with those she met and helped throughout her time here with us. Her zeal for cooking and love of feeding others made her feel wanted and appreciated, and that is what I miss the most. If you haven't lost your mum, then never let a day go by that you don't let her know how much you appreciate her being a part of your life, for the day will come when she's not. No, she was not a perfect person, but she was a perfect mother, and that is what we all strive to be as parents.

 Until next week friends.

Juanjohn