Babe: Elaboratio: A Tribute to My Mother

There aren’t enough trees to make enough paper to write enough words to say how much I love my mom, and words would just make a big bucket of ink.

I only knew her for a short time, as she died when I was thirteen, but those years gave me infinite joy and strength. I carry her with me every day. The love we had for each other will last me my entire life. She dreamed I’d become a musician—a famous musician.

She would say, “I want to be known as Beethoven’s mother.” It was her ...