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Only two things change when you get older: the energy in your voice and the time of night you feel it's appropriate to call someone. In your 20s, people call at 2 a.m. and yell, 'Are you up?' into the answering machine. Now, someone calls after 8 p.m., and my boyfriend is like, 'Who is that? Who could be calling at this hour?'

Seven years after my mother's passing, I still reach for the phone for a split second to call her. We spoke every day.

I call my parents twice a day when I'm away.

I remember if the telephone rang after 9 o'clock in the house, my mother would say, 'Who's ringing at this time?' We just wouldn't answer the phone.

I remember being 24 in Los Angeles. And up until that moment, when my mom would call my cell phone and it would ring, I would be flushed with some sort of excitement that we all have - a little dopamine rush, when my phone rings - and I'd look down, and it would say, 'Mom.' It used to feel like a job to pick that up.

I'm terrified of missing my call time. I'll check my alarm several times before I fall asleep.

When my mom turned 91, I wanted to use the time that we have left in our lives to get to know each other as adults.

If I was a parent or a kid, I would need a cell phone, and those things are invaluable, but my kids are out of the house now, and I am thrilled when I wake up to not have a cell phone, and feel like today is stretching out in front of me for 1,000 hours, as it seems.

Obviously, I'm suffering from lack of sleep, but it truly is a blessing to be a mother.

My mom was always late. It drove me crazy as a child. So I'm always on time - or early.