Rachmaninov Is “The Wind Beneath My Wings”

When I was a young woman I knew everything.  I often fought with my mother.  After those battles which in my own mind I invariably won by resorting to cruel juvenile personal attacks–I hate you, You hate me, You’ll be glad when I’m dead–she always forgave me and we moved on.  I left home at 22 and made a home of my own.  And now, after so many years, I realize how like my mother I have become.  I will never return to my mother’s house, but I have brought her house to live with me.  Her values, her character, her core are what I want most to emulate. I can never match her beauty, nor her elegance, but the rest of what is best in her will live on in me.  I will always recall sitting under the baby grand piano as a child and listening to her play Rachmaninov’s Concerto in C# Minor.  I think of the song “The Wind Beneath My Wings” and how much of it reminds me of her.  If I fly higher than an eagle, it is because of her support and inspiration. She is my hero. She is everything I would like to be.  She is my best friend.  I cannot imagine a world without my mother in it.  But time is gaining on us.