So, it's my turn to pen this week's Letters from Tripod. I'm going to touch on something that's a little different from the other letters you're all used to; the topic of this piece is love. Love can come in many different forms, there are so many things people can say when they talk about love ... you know the drill. Someone recently asked me what I loved about a particular person. I couldn't think of anything to say! It was so difficult to explain what I really liked about that person that I was stuttering, my mind going completely blank. It made me uncomfortable to know that I could feel something about a person and not be able to express those feelings. So I've decided to rise to the occasion. I'm looking at this as a challenge to prove to myself that I can put my feelings into words. I'm going to give you a list of 50 things I love about someone.

This is dedicated to my mom, Eileen Lincourt, who passed away on October 8, 1996. I may miss her more than words can say, but I'll try to explain why I love her.

50 reasons I love my mom:

1. For giving me three brothers
2. She always provided everything we needed
3. She would always find a way to provide the things we wanted!
4. For not letting me use the trampoline in gymnastics, because she thought I would break my neck
5. For cheering me on during the best soccer game I've ever played
6. For knowing where on the race track I typically did my worst, and standing there to cheer me on
7. For hollering the sweet words "Carolyn France Lincourt!" when I was in trouble
8. For naming me "Carolyn" because she thought "Carrie" wasn't long or sophisticated enough
9. For gathering three cars' worth of family members to drive 2,000 miles to surprise my aunt with a baby shower
10. For teaching me "creative financing"
11. The way she could read people
12. The way she accepted EVERYONE
13. She cried at the little things
14. She would listen
15. The way she would cut all of her food first, and then eat it
16. She never got to eat a warm meal because she was always busy helping us
17. For never ever missing anything that her children were involved in
18. The way she always had advice about everything
19. She was always right!
20. If something wasn't cooked right in a restaurant, she would send it back
21. For how much she loved her children
22. The poem she gave me for my 21st birthday
23. She had Indian children in her day care, so she learned to cook Indian food!
24. Our talks when we sat outside at night
25. She was proud of me for going to a private, all-women's college
26. Seeing her at my graduation
27. She sacrificed for friends and family
28. Her poems
29. The way she used to turn her ring around on her finger
30. For getting mad when my brothers and I faught
31. The look on her face when she saw my brothers trying to ice skate on our above-ground pool
32. The look on her face on Christmas morning
33. How much she loved children
34. She always knew by the color of my eyes if I was upset
35. She always found everything out
36. She was my best friend
37. Caroling with her on Christmas Eve
38. The time she wouldn't let us listen to music for a week after my brothers and I wouldn't sing in church
39. Her hands
40. The way she would touch my arm when she knew I was nervous
41. The way she always waved to me at any function, as if I could wave back
42. She could turn anything into fun
43. She made me feel self-confident
44. The way she looked at me
45. Her smell
46. Her laugh
47. Her smile
48. The way she danced and sang with my father
49. The way she loved my father
50. I now have her as my guardian angel

— Carrie