"My mother looked to me, " he says.

FORBES: Catch and Release

My mother looked straight at my brother.

NEWYORKER: The Pura Principle

My father, so thin and athletic, looked almost frail with shock, while my mother, whose beauty was still remarkable, and who was known on the reservation for her silence and reserve, had left off her characteristic gravity.

NEWYORKER: The Reptile Garden

And in my cache of childhood memories, I can honestly say the times my mom looked the most stressed or dejected was when her mother-in-law (my beloved Nanny) would come over and immediately begin picking up around the house.

FORBES: All Moms Have Messy Houses And Other Survey Findings

My mother, Patricia Cockburn, took my temperature and asked Paddy McMahon, an elderly man who looked after the walled garden and our small herd of sheep, to bicycle into the town of Youghal a mile and a half away, to get a doctor.

NPR: Cockburn's 'Broken Boy,' a Memoir of Survival

Outside the airport, Kunming looked nothing like the quaint town my mother had described.

WSJ: Tess Gerritsen on Taking Her Mother's Ashes to China | Traveler's Tale

Though, from all that I know of his nature and his feelings for my mother, I think he may have been proud to see how good she looked in these liberating styles and how well she fit in with the theatre people.

NEWYORKER: Gravel

When I suggested that my 87 year old mother in law try a portable wheelchair on a trip she had planned, she looked at me cross-eyed.

FORBES: Mom! Look Out, Don't Fall!

One time, my mother was emptying out a load of laundry into the washing machine, and she heard this strange noise and looked and saw that my father had taken the clarinet apart piece by piece and hid it in the dirty laundry.

NPR: John Adams: 'Grand' And 'Gnarly' In Concert