Me and mom - she was 14 and I was a few months old

Today is Mother's Day in America. My mother and I have always been close, but since I was attacked by cancer we speak to each other almost every day. We're also very close in age because Mom got pregnant with me at 13 years old. I'm the first of her five boys. Because we're so close in age, we have so many things in common - including our senses of humor.

She married my stepfather Bobby when I was seven years old. They were cool beatniks and treated me more like a peer than a child, which is probably why I'm so independent. Now that I'm older, I appreciate that.

My parents are two of the funniest people I've ever known. Bobby died not too long ago. He was as funny as Lenny Bruce and mom is just as hysterical. She just called me and thanked me for her Mother's Day present, and then we laughed the entire time.

At the the end of the conversation, I hung up the phone and thought about how much I love, respect, and understand her. She's beautiful, unorthodox, intellectual, wacky, and unique - "A Real Mother For Ya!"