At first, it was too painful to see or hear any reminders of her. But eventually, as time passed, I found myself letting the wall down a little at a time and allowing the memories to creep back in.
Then, when I was ready, doing things Mama used to do made me feel like she was close.
We have sausage balls with mustard at our Christmas family gathering, and you will find me wrapping colorful bulb lights around our tree. In this, Mama is a part of what we were doing.