A few years ago while living in Ottawa I submitted a story to the Downhomer about my friend that I had never had a chance to say goodbye to as he (Randy ROWSELL) had passed away while awaiting for a bone marrow transplant in Toronto. He was eventually laid to eternal rest at our home town of Norris Arm South. My Mother (Angela PINSENT) cut out this story from the Downhomer Magazine and kept it in her purse for years. Every time she would read it she would cry. Mother are a wonderful God send! Most time we never fully appreciate all they do for us. My Father had passed away in 1982 when I was about 14 years old so I never remembered too much about him. After he passed, it was always me and my Mother. She did everything she could for me. We never had much money but she provided for me the best she could. Taking to me to teenage dances at my school in Lewisporte even in the stormiest winters. She was always full of praise for me no matter what small job I done. I loved her homemade bread, her meat cakes, and her pan of fried potatoes at lunch hour. She lived with me from 2004 - 2008 so I could look after her as her health was failing constantly. She was in and out of hospital about once a week. Finally in November 2008 I managed to convince her to take up residence at the Nightingale Manor here in Gander where she could live quietly without having to worry about cooking and trying her best to look after her boy.....LOL Every time I left home to go on course (Military) she would always end up in the hospital. Even though she had a pacemaker and defibrillator transplant in 2005, her heart was always deteriorating. She had no illness, no disease.....nothing. Her heart was just too weak to keep on going. The last week of September 2009 I was away again in CFB Borden Ontario when I got a call from my girlfriend Sharon. She told me that I should come home as Mom was not fairing to well and was admitted the the Emergency Department of the James Paton memorial Hospital, where she spent most of her last years of life. I flew home on a Sunday evening. When I walked into the emergency room, she was lying in bed shaking and was hallucinating from the morphine she was taking. She was asking for candy and for me to turn the fan on........she thought she was back in her room at the Manor. The next day, Monday 5 Oct 09, she was moved to a private room on the 3rd floor. My work supervisor, his wife, my older Brother and my girlfriend and her parents were there. About an hour there, she wanted to use the bathroom so I asked everyone to leave. She did not need to use the bathroom……….It was just my brother and myself there at this point. My brother went for a walk and it was then that I was all alone with my Mother. She said that she was ready to go and that she was talking to her Brother Charles, who had passed away a year earlier. I held her hand and put one hand on her forehead and softly told her that if she was tired that she could go to sleep……that I would be fine and that her Grand-Daughter, whom she shared a special bond with, would be fine as well. I told her one last time that I loved her so much with tears flowing down my face. She did have to get one shot in at me before her passing. Before my girlfriend had to leave for a few minutes, she gave Mom a kiss on the cheek and I asked Mom if she knew who she was. Mom looked at me, shaking, and stated” Boy I haven’t lost my mind yet”………. As I held her hand, I asked the nurse to come in and administer a bit more morphine to assist Mom in her breathing. 15 Minutes after that at 9:30 pm, 5 Oct 10, Mom slipped away peacefully two months away from her 80th birthday, leaving me to the tears and pain and no understanding as to why God would have done this. For months I struggled with the pain and unbelief that she was gone and never coming back. I had no Grand-Parents alive, no living Aunts except for one by marriage, no uncles living except for one of Moms surviving Brothers. I have one cousin who was like a Daughter to Mom and a Sister to me whom I keep in contact with and my little girl who will never forget her loving Grand-Mother. I have to mention that if it was not for my loving partner, Sharon, I do not know where I would have ended up. She has been my pillar of life and my strength. The love I have for her is unbreakable and untouchable thanks to the love that my Mother had shown to me over the 41 years of my life. I still think about her everyday, I cry in silence and hurt still which the pain will never go away. I visit her grave every week that I can, and have a chat with her……. I tell my girlfriend everyday that I love her and I tell my lil girl that I love her everyday as well even though she lives with her Mother an hour away from me. Its true that a person will never know what they have in a parent until they are gone forever. God Bless Sheldon Pinsent Gander.   Submitted By: Sheldon Pinsent