by Nicholas Sabori

Created on: September 08, 2009   Last Updated: September 09, 2009

I've been quiet about my mom's passing. Not intentionally, or on purpose, it's just I haven't really had the opportunity to speak on the subject, no one's asked and I haven't offered out loud. I guess it's time I face the topic and reflect a little on how her sickness, from diagnosis to death, has affected me and my family. Before we get to that I should tell you a little about her, that way you can know the person that was my mother.

Barbara Robles was kind, gentle, and caring to say the least. She spent most of her life helping others; whether that be her work in Washington D.C., or back on our reservation creating programs that would help kids buy school supplies and clothes. She worked for the Entrepreneurship Program, helping people start businesses that would help our community and worked diligently with the Elderly Program making sure they were taken care of and that they got out seeing the world. They went on trips, like to Hawaii and California, they went to the movies, and she made sure that they were more than just physically healthy; she made sure they were happy.

At home, Barbara was a fervent perfectionist toward cleanliness. Our house was pretty much lab clean most of the time. I got my dad's relaxed genes, couple that with general childlike defiance and you get my cleanliness habits, or lack there of. My room was a constant battleground growing up; I would leave my clean clothes intentionally lying three feet from my dirty clothes because it drove her crazy. She'd playfully call me a slob and I'd joke with her being a warden, she'd even call bedtime "lights out" on occasion just to make me laugh.

She tried to have a green thumb but for some reason, lacked the natural talent to not kill plants. Her garden was always dying but she spent countless hours out there trying to beautify our yard. She liked things in their place and fought like hell till they were. At work she was focused, she fought for what she wanted and made sure that she got it. She always made sure that my sister and I never wanted for much, made certain that we were fed, maybe a little too fed, and that we had more than the necessities. She worked many hours to ensure her family was taken care of.

I've been told by many that she had always been that way. Since her childhood she was a "clean freak" and that her homework was always done early. She was in the top of her class in high school and was even crowned Miss Gila River. She worked hard at everything she did, and was compassionate,

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