One of Lena Ostroff’s mother’s favourite sayings was, “If you want a little bit of security, that’s all you will have. It’s better to take risks and go for what you really want.”

Helen Salzman Ostroff passed away two years ago after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

When Ms Ostroff was growing up, her mother was a stay-at-home home mom who was always there.

“She cooked, cleaned and made sure we had a nice home and were dressed well, even on a limited budget,” she said.

“My parents were together for 70 years and my dad took care of my mother for several years before she passed.

“We lost her to Alzheimer’s and in the end, she did not even know who I was.”

Before and during that time, Ms Ostroff said: “I loved to make her cards and silly little gifts for Mother’s Day and her birthday, out of old boxes covered in paper with glitter. When we went out together, I’d hold her hand and tell her I loved her.

“When I moved away from home, I would phone every week. I would come back to visit often and would take her out for lunch, which she loved.

“Before my mom died, she was an invalid. I would visit with her and spend time combing her hair or taking her for a walk in her wheelchair. I would ask her to tell me about her childhood and her mother. In the end, she didn’t know who I was, but she still remembered her own mother and sisters and she liked to talk about them.”

When she was young, she and her mother would get dressed up on Saturdays and drive into the city to visit big department stores, shop and the have lunch at her favourite restaurant.

But some of the best memories were after she gave birth to her son.

“She was such a devoted bubby (grandmother,” said Ms Ostroff, “and whenever we came home to visit, my mother would spend time with her grandson.

“She’d cook with him, play cards with him, let him help with the laundry, take him out to the mall and on other adventures. She always made time to be with him and adored being his bubby.”

Something else that stood out with Ms Ostroff was when her mom would take her home during lunchtimes and they would share a home made feast.

After the day was over, her mother was always at home and always enquired about what she had learned.

“It made me feel special to have her waiting for me when I came home every day.”

On one of their jaunts after Ms Ostroff graduated from Junior High her mother took her to San Francisco for the weekend to celebrate. “We flew there together, just the two of us and it was the first time I stayed at a big city hotel,” she recalled.

“We saw the sights, rode cable cars, took a cruise around the bay, ate at some exclusive restaurants and went shopping. I felt very special.

“My mom used to come visit me after I moved away from home. She came to see me when I lived in the Middle East, in the West Indies and many times in Bermuda, which she truly loved most of all.

“She used to say she wished someday I would live in a place she could get to with one flight. But despite long distances and tedious travel arrangements, my mom always came to see me.”

‘It made me feel special to have her waiting for me’