Hello  family;  We have finally laid to rest our mother, Nellie Mae Croom(Harris). This has been a time of testing for our family, the question of will we go on is a simple one; yes we will.  But will we survive, that remained to be seen. Being the first born; I would like to share my unique propective on my mother. It is sometimes strange that there are times when I can't remember things that happen only a couple of days ago, but there are images and thing from my childhood that I don't think I will ever forget, at lease I hope not.

I remember a place far from where we are now, when times were not very good.  I remember a woman who had to make the hardest decision that any mother could make, to split up a family in order to save us all.  With Faith and very little else, I remember a woman that left all the she had known, moved to a very different place in the hopes of one day reuniting her family. With faith and very little else, she made it happen.

My Mother was an extraordinary woman; she was more than a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, Grand-ma, Auntie or friend. She was our beginning; During my time in Pittsburgh; before the service, I met many people some were familiar to me others I did not know, but  all ask the same question; How are you Doing?  My answer was always the same; I am doing alright! After receiving the news that my mother had passed, I went thourgh what any child does when the vessel of their life is gone. Disbelief, Sorrow, and Anger; but somewhere in that cloud, I became that small child crying in the darkness for it's mother.  Thats when I felt the words "Eddie James, don't  worry it's alright", it was at that moment  I remembered the Rock hard, unswerving, unapologetic, unchanging faith of my mother and just as quickly I was alright.