Trekkie Mom.

Trekkie Mom?

Well, she wasn't really.

In fact, I don't think she ever willingly read a science fiction novel or went to a science fiction movie on her own.

Never the less, by being exposed to two S.F. nuts in Dad and I, she picked up it up by osmosis.

Dad and I watched the original show every week, and I suppose she was there with us, or at least overhearing from the kitchen.

Later, when I became so enamored of Lord of the Rings, she was a bit doubtful, but supported me anyway. She encouraged imagination in all us kids, even if it veered off in unexpected directions.

I'll always remember what she said when she came back after seeing Star Trek, the Voyage Home, (the one about the whales).

"It really surprised me how much I enjoyed it," she said. "It was like visiting old friends...."

Seeing the new Star Trek movie on Mother's Day was appropriate, somehow. I think if I could have dragged her to it, she might have said the same thing. "Like visiting old friends."

I miss her, and marvel how the threads of my life are still full of her presence.