My mother passed away on Jan. 23, 2020. She lived a full, beautiful life and left us peacefully just before the world as we know it began to spiral and change forever.

I first sat to reflect and write this piece on June 7, what would have been my mother’s 89th birthday. I sat in my sunroom looking at the peace rose bush she gave me when my husband and I bought our home 25 years ago in North Beach Haven. My deep roots in our community exist because of my mother, who “found” LBI in the early ’60s to have a summer home here for her children. I met my husband in Beach Haven, and we were fortunate to purchase this Andersen family homestead when we married.