The eyebrow pencil and false eyelashes were essential; my mother didn't feel dressed without them.

The eyebrow pencil and false eyelashes were essential; my mother didn't feel dressed without them.

My mother wasn't rational those last years; if she had been, she would have been horrified by her own behavior.

My sister Liza and I have never felt that we were in competition.

The high point of my entire junior high school career was going backstage after the first concert to meet the Beatles in person. I had a huge crush on George Harrison at the time, having inherited my family's passion for skinny musicians, and I was simply awestruck to be meeting the Fab Four in person.

Instead of joyfully looking forward to my birth, my mother began systematically preparing for her own death. She was fatalistic.

The one thing I never questioned about my mother was whether she loved me.