Inauguration Day

I'm sitting here watching the inauguration with my dad. I wish that my mom was here, but I feel she is, even if I can not see her. I remember things she has said over the years, and I can think of what she would say about it.

Earlier I tried to wake my dad, who had fallen asleep in his chair, and knowing he wanted to see this I started to wake him and caught myself when I almost said "Wake up mom." It had been my mom I was always waking up to watch something she wanted to see.

I remember her telling me of living in New Orleans years ago and feeling it was not right that blacks could not come into the diner she worked at, she had to take their meals to the back door for them. Of how just after she got there, having come from California, she automatically went to the back of the bus to smoke a cigarette and how that got her into a lot of trouble - a white woman at the back of a bus in the deep South.

This is a very wonderful day for this country, and I know that, if only in our hearts, my mom is here watching it with me and dad. I know as well that President Elect Obama's grandmother is with his family today, watching in unspeakable pride as he takes the oath of office.