As mothers and daughters, we are connected with one another. My mother is the bones of my spine, keeping me straight and true. She is my blood, making sure it runs rich and strong. She is the beating of my heart. I cannot now imagine a life without her.

A daughter without her mother is a woman broken. It is a loss that turns to arthritis and settles deep into her bones.

I am a mother and mothers don’t have the luxury of falling apart in front of their children, even when they are afraid, even when their children are adults.

On bad days, like today, she knew that she had always been an outsider in her own family. They had sensed the lack in her early on, seen that she didn't fit in.

We fought, we struggled, we hurt each other, so what? That's what love is, I think. It's all of it - the dust, the drought, the fights with you - never once did I stop loving you or Ant or the farm.

She knew it was wrong to be angry with her mother now - the weather wasn't her fault - but Loreda couldn't help herself. She was mad at the world, and somehow that meant shew as mad at her mom most of all.