Marylin Naomi (Shepherd) Warner is a writing coach, editor, and freelance writer who keeps a blog entitled,  “Things I Want To Tell My Mother,” in order to help her mother–Mary Elizabeth (Hoover) Shepherd–with her Alzheimer’s Disease.

What an inspiring idea, Marylin! Thanks for your submission to our Memory of Mom (MoM) contest. 

My mother is 93, losing her memories in bits and pieces as her dementia advances.

I made her a promise three years ago when my father died, that each month I would drive from Colorado to southeastern Kansas (1,300 miles round trip) and stay a few days with her in her assisted living facility.

During those 32 monthly visits, we have shared driving adventures to her favorite places, and taken friends who’ve been part of her life for years out for meals or coffee.

During the years, though, Mom’s memories became more and more lost in a haze.

I was with her each month, but also losing more of her each month.

So what I did was create a blog, “Things I Want To Tell My Mother,” so I record stories (with pictures) of the big and small events of Mom’s life, the simple and the significant, the poignant and the funny.

This blog will be the “five more minutes” of Mom’s connection with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and they will know the woman she once was.

When a blog post touches them or triggers a memory, they leave a comment with more details, and the ongoing living story takes hold.

Now when I visit each month and read aloud a few entries and show her pictures, Mom will smile and say, “What an amazing lady your friend must be.”

She’s right. My friend–my mother–was and still is an amazing lady.

And even though she will forget, we will remember.