quotes relating to mothers, a bit late

It's a couple weeks past Mother's Day, but I'm sitting here thinking about my mom and about part of a story I heard read today, and a quote from Garrison Keillor that I found again on Sharyn November's website.

Odd connections, but here goes.

I went to a reading of Aqueduct Press writers, which included Eileen Gunn and Eleanor Arneson, as well as Andrea Hairston who read from her novel Redwood and Wildfire. At one point in the reading I was starting to go off into tears- without using too many details, the main character's mother dies, and the narrator is just blunt about it - she was gone and she was never coming back.
And the character says (or thinks, I can't remember) - something like "She was never really dead. Redwood is a spell that Garnet left behind and she lives on in Redwood this way" (I am misquoting because i didn't write it down exactly -- Garnet, the mom, is a conjurer in 1898 in the American South, and she is murdered by a gang of white men. And so Redwood decides to become a conjurer also and that's apparently the content of the rest of the book.

I followed her out to the hallway to tell her how meaningful this was, but she was quite busy and I kind of felt like it wasn't the most original comment...but it was what was happening for me in that moment. I also told her about the SF Fringe Festival because she said she was putting on a play in January. I feel a bit dumb about that too because she's been a theater professional for 30 years apparently, and knows about fringe festivals.

Then -- just now I went and looked at Sharyn November's page she made about her mother, and again found this quote she listed from Garrison Keillor.
I don't think I can read this quote too many times. Although I have to modify the number since before it said "having picked up so much of her in 34 years.

You are the continuation and resurrection of your mother, having picked up so much of her in 16 years, and so you go on, as her living legacy to the world. You'll miss her every day of your life and there's no getting around that. But she gave you precious gifts and you bear them onward.

Just wanted to say - it is nice being around Tom and Ginny this weekend but it was a bit eerie waking up on Friday morning and hearing them talking. It felt like I was a little kid again, hearing the murmuring of mom and dad (either before I went to bed or before I woke up).
And Ginny's voice, when muffled by two doors, plus only listening out of one ear, does sound like my mom. I guess it's the similar accent, too.