In the week or two before I flew to Afghanistan, there was one truly difficult thing to do on a long checklist — telling my mother about the trip.
Mom turned 96 a couple of weeks after the Fort Hood shooting, which I covered. I was only able to tell her about the Afghanistan trip a few days before boarding the plane for Kabul. Before doing it, the many events we had shared since I was a toddler fascinated by the pretty scorpion I wanted to pet one afternoon flashed through my mind’s eye.
