Madeline Hartsell Lamb 12/26/40-7/8/12

Mom...today, on the second anniversary of your death, I prefer to remember you like this--no makeup, just a beautiful smile. Your brain tumor didn't take away your beauty, it only allowed it to shine through even brighter, shine th...

Okay, it is going to sound corny, but I really felt my mother's presence last night at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh as I officially launched my new book, "The Living Room." Not only did I have a great crowd of engaged listeners from friends, to family to readers, but t...

I have been fortunate enough to work for a company that celebrate's its employees outside projects. We have writers, musicians, artists, you name it, working in television news. Generally, I have found that creative people don't just have one creative outlet, but inste...

The more I talk about my new book, the more I realize that it is a conversation starter. The conversation is about end-of-life issues. Where do I want to be if I become sick? Who will take care of me? Who will handle my business, my bills, my life? These are all questi...

As I reflect on  the journey with my mother chronicled in "The Living Room," I recall everything she taught me--not jut in those eighty days, but throughout my forty-six years. I am going to share part of that list over the next few weeks. They are words that come back...

There's a moment in every author's life when he or she sees his or her book on the shelf for the very first time. I remember seeing "Smotherhood" on the shelf in the Barnes and Noble in Cary back in 2007. It was my first book. I started crying right there in the parent...

It's the place where my mother lived, the place where my mother died, and the place where I learned to live again.

Until my mother was diagnosed with brain cancer, very little living had ever gone on in my living room. She changed all that.

Now, in her absence, it is t...

I reached into my pocket of a jacket that I haven't worn in a long time, and I found this movie ticket that had "senior" written on it. I realized right away that the ticket stub belonged to my mother who died in July 2012 after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Goin...