I've just had some bad news. Tomorrow is the mother in law's funeral. And she's cancelled it.
My mother, at least twice, cancelled our family's subscription to the newspaper I was working on, because she was so mad about its treatment of my father.
I held my father's hand while he died of cancer, and it's really painful when you do something like that up close and personal. My mother was already gone, and I was very, very close to my father.
I think if you follow anyone home, whether they live in Houston or London, and you sit at their dinner table and talk to them about their mother who has cancer or their child who is struggling in school, and their fears about watching their lives go by, I think we're all the same.
I didn't leave home until 27. I was an only child raised in Philadelphia by my mother and grandmother. My grandmother controlled the stove. She made a lot of potato meals - mashed potato, potato souffle, potato pancakes. When we didn't have electricity, we ate romantically by candlelight.
I remember vividly, as a kid, my mother had 'Jesus Was a Capricorn' and used to listen to it over and over and over.
I'm a man that's unique to the world. That's kind of the star I was born under - on the cusp of Capricorn and Aquarius. My mother is Irish-American, and my father is Afro-Panamanian, so it's kind of been the story of my life to be a bridge between different cultures and different styles, and musically, that's between jazz and R&B.
Ever since my mother sent me to Saturday morning grammar classes when I was 7, I wanted to become a famous actor. I loved the idea of captivating an audience and moving them truly through performance, but more importantly being recognized and heavily lauded for that talent.
My mother's sister was killed in a trolley car accident, so I was raised as one of eight with my sister and six male cousins.
My father was a sheep shearer, so I grew up in a caravan; we'd go around from shearing shed to shearing shed. My mother always wanted us to be educated, so I went to a school.
Mine wasn't a lakes-and-boats kind of childhood. I grew up on a Glasgow council estate with a single mother. For our holidays, we went to Grandma and Grandad's caravan near Aberfoyle.
The dirty little secret is that I grew up in a household where there were no carbohydrates allowed, ever. No cookies, no bread, no potatoes, no rice. My mother was very extreme in terms of what she served. Since I left home more than 40 years ago, I've been making it right for myself.
My mother was a powerful influence. She made me toe the line. If I didn't have a perfect report card, she showed her disappointment.
On the good days, my mother would haul out the ukulele and we'd sit around the kitchen table - it was a cardboard table with a linoleum top - and sing.
Rose Adams is a wonderful Christian woman who cared for my mother, Morrow Coffey Graham, in her last years of life.
My career choice was to be a mother.
I think the first 10 years of my daughter's life were my mother's happiest, because she could finally have carefree time with a kid.
My mother always taught us that if people don't agree with you, the important thing is to listen to them. But if you've listened to them carefully and you still think that you're right, then you must have the courage of your convictions.
Just as a mother finds pleasure in taking her little child on her lap, there to feed and caress him, in like manner our loving God shows His fondness for His beloved souls who have given themselves entirely to Him and have placed all their hope in His goodness.
Me and my mom are pretty cool. My mother's Caribbean, and she gets a little spicy, and I get a little spicy back.
