Like so many women of her generation, she suffered quietly, not complaining; but deep down I'm sure she felt that for all her hard work, it would have been nice to have some material success.
So I was thrilled to begin helping her, when I started hitting my stride, career-wise. Then she died. Way too young. Just 61.
I remember her as tough in all things, except for one.
Thunderstorms. She would cower under the sheets, close her eyes, cover her ears, and instruct my father, my brother and I to let her know when it all passed.
Fortunately in Los Angeles, thunderstorms were fairly rare. At least compared to the rest of the country. I found that out quickly when I moved to New York in 1992. Turns out, I knew from nothing about thunderstorms.
But every time I hear the boom of thunder, and see the bolts of lightning. And I think of my mom. And when we see the damage from these storms as we fear we might see tonight, waiting for this humidity to break, and as we saw last week with the tornado in Bridgeport and the fierce winds on Long Island, I send a mental message: Mom, you were right to be scared.
Meteorologist Lee Goldberg is tracking the storms for us, and he'll have the latest, tonight at 11.
Also at 11, our political reporter Dave Evans is in Albany, watching the carnival that is the state legislature as it tries to come up with a budget. So far it's not done much of a job, and there's some fear that, despite insistence from state leaders that it won't happen, New York government will shutdown.
And we'll have a wrap up of Day 1 of the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice nominee Elena Kagan. Before she headed to Capitol Hill this morning, she stopped by the Oval Office for some coffee and encouragement by the man who put her name into nomination.
We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Rob Powers (in for Scott Clark) with the night's sports. I hope you can join Liz Cho and me, tonight at 11.
