Coming home to a place I’ve never been

Today would have been my mother’s 95th birthday.  This Nevada Appeal column published on July 14, 2004, just ten days before she passed away suddenly.

Again I wanna see and do the things we’ve done and seen
Where the breeze is sweet as Shalimar and there’s forty shades of green.

~Johnny Cash

My mother and I are smiling in front of Donegal Castle in Ireland. In the picture, taken mid-way through our twelve days together, we look happy and we still fit in the frame, in spite of the full Irish breakfasts, potato-laden pub lunches, Guinness (with a bit of black currant, please), tea and biscuits in the afternoon, rhubarb crumble with custard and cream, Irish coffees after supper, and those tasty McVitie’s Digestives that sound much healthier than they are. We don’t need a wide-angle lens yet and you can actually see the castle’s stone walls behind us.

My…