Leaving Los Angeles

I moved out of state and away from my parents back in 2004. I kept moving progressively westward and ended up in Los Angeles in 2009. In all of this time, I think we visited each other no more than a dozen times. My mother was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer in 2020. She was gone by the following year. Thankfully I was able to go home for her last few months and spend time with her. She…