Termination Dust used to throw my late mother into the darkest of depressions. She would mutter about the last rose of summer.

I realize now that she was sad, lonely and also worried how to survive another long winter. Those were the days before cell phones and making a long distance call was a huge ordeal due to cost and lack of reliability of telephone connections.

The docs in those days were very free with giving sleeping pills to complaining women. Need I say more?

Christmas was less than a highlight of the year than a milestone on the way to another spring.

I can still feel her sadness, but as I child I could not have cared less as I was about as happy as I could get.

That's Alaska!