text: For the past couple of weeks my mom has been sending me flight deals to my email. She'll see a sale, and send it to me. New promo, it's in my inbox. Great deal on flights to Vegas, you bet it's coming my way. Trip to Cuba? I'm getting that too. It started as a few sparse emails here and there, but its become an every other day kind of thing. At first, I was really confused. I didn't understand what brought this on. I travel somewhat frequently for work so I just figured she was trying to be helpful, but to be honest, it kind of annoyed me. I'm the co-founder of a start-up and my inbox is flooded every day. I unsubscribe to mailing lists that don't add value like its a hobby, so a constant torrent of flight deals really wasn't doing it for me. In addition to that, deals from airlines aren't really useful because we book our business flights through a business account on Expedia anyways. But there's a lot more to it than just emails, I think. My mom is disappointed and sad. I spend time with her and I know I'm a good son, but there's nothing that can be done to change this. I know her life didn't turn out the way she wanted it to. Sure, her and my dad live in a beautiful house, but when you peel things back a few layers, things aren't all that great in her mind and from her perspective. Her parents, her best friends for the longest time, are ageing significantly and her mother is unwell. My grandparents aren't the same people they used to be. My dad, despite being the greatest dad he could have been, isn't the smartest man and made a number of financial decisions that he wasn't honest about and kept things from my mom. He never could live up to her hopes that she'd find someone like her father - successful, stoic, family first always, a real man's man. She's always been disappointed in that. To top it all off, my siblings have left the house, and at 27, I'm the only one left. Half my foot is out the door already; my girlfriend closed on a condo a few months ago. The one thing that my mom has poured herself into are her kids. She was a stay at home mom and invested in us like her retirement was banking on it. She's the go-to for our family, even with my brother and sister out of the house. If something's wrong, mom is one of the first calls. Feeling unwell? She knows all the signs and symptoms of every disease (both discovered and yet researched). Need financial advice? She's a tax master. Need a special type of doctor? She's got you covered. She's the glue that brings everything together. Sure, she's a classic helicopter parent, always wanting to be involved, always engaged, and always disappointed as her kids age and they pull back into their own lives and families, but she's never stopped loving, and she never will. I remember a year ago I got my truck stuck in the mud, and I ruined this pair of fancy suede boots I was wearing while getting unstuck. I threw them in the trash, and unbeknownst to me she took them out, got them cleaned by some magician shoemaker, and they looked almost new. That is who she is; she's our family's fixer. Last night I was staying at my girlfriend's talking to her about the flight emails. I hadn't thought twice about them, but when I told her I asked my mom to stop sending them, I burst into tears. In that instant, I came to the realization that the emails weren't about the flights. They were a sign. They were a flash of love. I'm thinking about you. I care about you. I hope this helps. I love you. Despite her life changing before her eyes, despite everything she knows falling away from her, despite her sadness, she just wanted to show me she cared. I messaged her last night to tell her to keep the flight emails coming. She asked if I was sure. I said I was. I got one this morning.