Absent. That's what mom has been for the past three years since the day the front door slammed shut on her and the four carrier bags of belongings. That's all she took, her makeup and her best pair of shoes. Crocodile skin. Horrid looking things but they seemed to mean more to her than the family.

Kathleen, the youngest still kept an eye on the front path most evenings just in case mom returned. Rest of us knew that very unlikely as her latest boyfriend had been very rich and mom had always been a gold digger.

We lived with her second husband Phil, who suprisingly enough was a better father than our real one who preferred his drink and living with his mom to spending any time with us.

When I have my own family I hope I'll never be like my parents.

I never told Kathleen that I had seen mom a few times. Not with her boyfriend but on her own, walking into a bar, dressed innappropriately for a woman her age.

With a younger man.

In many ways I'm glad she's absent. Think she would be embarassing to have around.