A mother's love is a sturdy thing, it survives most everything in its path. It endures immeasurable heartache, faces overwhelming fears, creates magic and miracles, and challenges all enemies. A mother's love can comfort and soothe, correct and scold, guide and let go all with one look. It is steady and constant - omnipresent and solid. Yes, a mother's love is a sturdy thing, but life is ultimately not. Children, no matter how old they become, have an irrational belief that their moms will last forever. We can't quite figure out who we are without the one who gave us life to define us. When mothers die, like my mom did this morning, it leaves the ones left behind desperate to find that true north on the compass. But a mother's love is sturdy, it doesn't collapse under the grief of loss. It lasts beyond the expiration of the earthly vessel that kissed boo-boos and tucked us in at night. A mother's love is deposited into the hearts of those she loved and there it grows and lives forever. It is sturdy enough to prop us up and remind us of the courage she taught us, sturdy enough to create a veil of peace until we can find serenity on our own. My mom was emancipated today from the prison of confusion that has kept her hostage for a decade. Her love is surely sturdy enough for me to climb onto its wake of protection and stay there while we make sense of her suffering and her courageous battle against Alzheimer's disease.  Her death was the answer to a prayer my Dad, brother and sister and I have whispered and spoken aloud for some time. Death, of course, is not on our clock and yet there is perfection in the timing of the universe. Gloria Jean Dyson Gibbons left a legacy of love and change that is powerful and beautiful. At her urging, we shared her diagnosis and her story of truth and strength to offer it up as a lifeline to others who were afraid and who felt alone. She asked me to promise to tell her story, and I continue to try. Our family, guided by my friend and co-founder, Dr. Jamie Huysman started the Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation as a love letter to my Mom and all the moms who know that love is love and a heart never forgets. We believed that those who are forgetting should not be forgotten and that no caregiver should ever be alone. And so we began to open Leeza's Place as an oasis for those families who know chronic disease of any kind. My mother's door was always open. She always had the coffee on and time for a conversation. It's that way at Leeza's Place. Like love, our support is free and is offered without conditions. I remember many conversations with my mother where she made it clear that she didn't want there to be shame and stigma around her diagnosis. So we proudly embrace her spirit and celebrate her life. They say the soul has an agenda. If that's true then my mom has checked this lifetime off the list! She has been the inspiration for so much healing and so much help that has been offered in her name. In South Carolina, where she lived almost her entire life, we get amazing storms. Mom loved them. She related to the change in the atmosphere and always saw it as a chance at a new beginning. Like the storms she loved, she was outspoken and fearless and yet vulnerable and ready for a good downpour of emotion. Her dreams were simple, to love her family the best way she knew how and to find her true self along the way. She used to say she was a strong southern woman,a steel magnolia and that God gave her such broad shoulders for a reason. It was to carry a dream of change, Mom. Now that you have placed it down, Cammy, Carlos, Anne Marie and I will pick it up and carry it effortlessly and gracefully because we are supported by your sturdy love. My children and their children will keep the story vital and keep the flame burning brightly. Daddy kissed his wife of 55 years goodbye today. He said it was hard to let go of her and yet he too was relieved for her release.To those who have loved her and loved me or my family, I feel your support and your presence. Even those I have never met and may never meet. I feel the collective blanket you are offering and I will wrap myself up in it and feel safe. Our family thanks you for your prayers, thoughts and outpouring of love. My mother's legacy of change is thriving. There is much needed healing and help being offered in her name through Leeza's Place. She always had the door open and the coffee on with plenty of time to sit and talk. That was our inspiration behind our free services for caregivers dealing with any kind of chronic illness. Mom has been emancipated from the prison of her confused mind now. She is free from the thief known as Alzheimer's disease that broke into our lives and stole her from us. Like millions of other families who bravely battle this insidious disease, we are dedicated to creating a world where memory loss no longer threatens the rewrite the story of our lives. Through our work at Leeza's Place we are blessed to have created a nationwide caregiver community that is becoming better education, more empowered and energized to face their struggles. I want to thank all those who have offered thoughts, prayers and support. It has wrapped me in a safe blanket of love as I grieve for my mother.