Mother...

"Every girl and woman who makes and keeps sacred covenants can have a mother heart. There is no limit to what a woman with a mother heart can accomplish. Righteous women have changed the course of history and will continue to do so, and their influence will spread and grow exponentially throughout the eternities."

("A 'Mother Heart'," Sister Julie B. Back Ensign, May 2004, 77)

My mother was always there for me. I remember her teaching me to swim. She would just throw me in the water and let me figure it out myself. The swimming wasn't the hard part, untying the knots and getting free of the ropes was the trick. Oh, we used to play the "untie yourself" game a lot. We'd play it on the rail road tracks, or to see if I could open the parachute in time...yes, she was something.

Seriously though, I just want to publicly thank my mom for the thousands of thankless hours, prayers and tears spent on me and in my behalf over the years. Truly, she has changed the course of my history and I will be eternally grateful.

Netina Rae (Langston) Bodine: My mother from nine months preceding November 11, 1979 to Present