This is an IHeart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories.

And all show long, we're celebrating Mother's Day, some stories from

the past, some stories from listeners, and everything in between. And by the way, we want to hear

from you, your mother's stories. Send them to Our American Stories.com. That's our American

Stories.com. Our next storyteller is from Fort Worth, Texas.

He moved us with his story,

The Real Santa.

Roger Latham is back,

along with his daughter Candy,

to honor his mother and celebrate Mother's Day.

Let's take a listen.

Let's take a listen. A number of years ago, as I sat in my office, my father entered and handed me six small notepad-sized pages.

Thought me you might like to read these, he said. Although I did not know at the

time, it might have been a good thing if he had provided a handful of tissues. I'd need

them. The words on the page were written in pencil. I recognized at once my mother's distinctive flowing

cursive. I knew it well because she had faithfully written to me for all of my three years

defending America from raging Germans. It was 1967, so it could easily have been Vietnam.

These pages held a blank verse poem.

I began to read.

It was easy to realize it as the musings of a middle-aged woman

with a soul deeper than the deepest sea.

...