Titles and Roles

       How long do our titles last?  How long do our roles define us?

       We may be called professor...or doctor...till our dying day.  We may be mother, father, aunt, grandma, son, daughter.  We may be mister, or miss, or Mrs., but on our dying day, may we not be luckiest and truest called by one name only.

       As death approaches, we're just who we are, roles fulfilled, attainments behind us, services nor needed nor wanted, titles in absentia. 

       My mother was Ida, and many knew her just that way well before she died at 101, family and others, friends and others.  Ida.  An honorific.  A name said warmly...with a smile.