Mom loved books and she loved to read to us, and it was no surprise that later in life, after raising seven children, she became a professor of English Literature at Maryland University. Our earliest memories are of her gathering us all around in a circle at her feet or lying in a heap on her big bed while she read to us. Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book", Winnie-the-Pooh, Mary Poppins, Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates....These stories sparked our imagination and made us all embrace reading, which we all still love and enjoy today. In many ways, though we are all different in our personalities, she shaped us by encouraging us to seek and learn and imagine.