Nice story. Thanks for sharing! Very sorry to read about the passing of your mom. My wife lost her mom 3 years ago to an aortic aneurysm. 58 years old and it was completely out of the blue. One moment here, another moment gone. They say that time heals all wounds, but I wonder if this is true. In some ways it becomes more painful as time goes on because your life has moved on and you have more time to think about the memories that our loved ones have missed out on, such as children being born, children growing older, special moments in our lives that we would want to share with them, etc. They have missed out on experiencing these moments with us. I think with time maybe we are better able to set the pain aside and not let it consume us, but I don't think it ever goes away.
I had always lusted after the submariners due to my love for the James bond films growing up. I would walk past the windows and just drool over them. I will always have this regret and I am still kicking myself today for making this mistake:
Back in 2002 I was determined to buy myself a Rolex for my 30th birthday. I had just found a website called Timezone and I started checking the place out. I saw the Explorer 1 and I fell in love with it. That was what I was going to buy myself. They were only $2,200 and I had made up my mind. Literally the week that I was going to do it, I went back online and found, to my horror, an article written by a douchebag hack who proceeded to rip the watch to shreds. Here was a Rolex expert bashing the very watch I was going to buy. Long story short, I never bought it and at the time I thought a submariner was too large for my wrist (what was I thinking?), so I bought a Sony XBR flatscreen with stand and DVD player instead. The TV is worthless but the watch would have still retained its value. It also turned out that the article was a sham and was simply not true. And now, I think the sub is the perfect size. Sigh.