A chance encounter on an ordinary walk, A man, a woman, a dog and a simple hello. Sometimes what makes a moment memorable isn't what happens, but what doesn't.

My mom, Sarah, believed she lived a charmed life. That might not seem remarkable until you know a little about the life she was describing. She grew up in a large family in rural Oklahoma in the 1940s. She married at 16 and became a mother at 17 when my sister, Delores, was born. Three years after that, I came along. By the time my parents' marriage ended, Mom was working the night shift at a local glass-making plant. The schedule was difficult. We were at school while she sl