I've been told that many times over the past decades.

Anything that I've accomplished in my lifetime, I owe to my parents, Charles and Mildred. Mom and Dad encouraged and supported me throughout my life. My mother began teaching me to read beginning at age 2. She used the Bible, Dick and Jane Readers, an old McGuffey's reader, and labels on household products.

I could read at age 3, and print by age 4. She also taught me subtraction and addition, and I mastered multiplication and division by age 5.

Mother was a teacher, and stopped teaching/working until I started school at age 5. I owe her everything, because without her tutelage, and love, I'd likely have ended up a failure. Mother's motto was, "If others can, you can, too!"

I miss her. I'll never forget her and dad.