Every person has a timeline of their own life, made up of the big moments in it -- the personal bests and worsts that singe their memories. On my timeline, one of those worsts came on November 3, 2004, when my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Mother's Day is around the corner, when you celebrate all the picture-perfect moments you're supposed to have enjoyed with mom. But possibly, quite possibly, that isn't your relationship to your mother at all. It certainly wasn't mine.

Cleaning out my mother's house has been both painful and eye-opening. Her photos, keepsakes and written words remind me of the amazing woman she once was, and highlight the glaring contrast between her then and now.

Cape Cod, where I grew up, is practically the ice cream capitol of the world, and my mother took full advantage of her adopted home. Unlike many women...

It's my favorite compliment, a simple phrase that makes me stand a little taller all day long: "You look like your mom." My mother, in my eyes, is one...

Let's put aside the more commonly-asked question these days -- that is, should you be Facebook friends with your children -- and get down to a much more basic quandary: Can you be real life friends with them?

I was looking at her sexuality shift as an opportunity to finally have the one thing I'd craved my entire life: a traditional mother.

That umbilical cord may have been cut at birth, but emotional cords tie you two together for life and beyond.