[JepZ]

> I often wonder if I would have been a better person if she was there.

In general, your parents might be responsible for what you are when you turn 18, but every step you do afterwards is your responsibility. I know people who are over 50 and still make their parents responsible for the bad things in their life, ignoring the 30 years they had to fix the problems of their past.

So yes, it might be a bad start to loose your mother that early, but if you think you could do better (by your own standards): You are the only person who has the authority and power to change yourself.

Sorry, this might sound a little tough given the overall topic, but I think it is is very important to realize this early in life.

[scarface74]

While I agree with you, if someone would have said the opposite - that they are where they are because of the support and guidance of their parents even when they were just getting started as an adult, few people would bat an eye.

I can say I am where I am because of all of my hard work. But I know that isn't entirely true. It would have been much harder for me to move out of the small town I grew up in and where I went to college, to the city where I live with much better opportunities making far too little to support myself in the beginning without their support. I can draw a pretty straight line from my first low paying job as a computer operator that didn't pay enough to make it to where I am today 20 years later.

If it weren't for them, I probably would have gotten a job that paid more then working on mainframes but without the growth opportunities in a small town.