This is a really lovely piece. I welled up with tears as I listened early this morning; it brought back for me my own father's illness and passing. Dmae's memorial to her mother mixes nice writing, a soft delivery and recordings of phone messages to take us very quickly into a time of sorrow and heartache for a family. Yet the recordings of Dmae's mother's phone messages made me laugh. She had a cute way of speaking.

The piece ends with some healing words of wisdom, solace for the pain life brings all of us. This is good story-telling, personal and universal, an invitation to come in and then a light turned on in the darkness.

Like the very best radio, this piece is both funny and sad. It also manages to be both matter-of fact, and tender…. and so intimate, it’s painful. The writing is just great, too, and Dmae’s reading is shockingly sweet yet also nuanced. At something like five minutes it has more to say about life, death and family than most feature length films. It’s a throat punch to the heart, guaranteed to leave you choked up. Dmae’s mother is everybody’s mother.