There are so many things to miss

I'm often asked what I miss the most about mom.  I know that sounds like she's already gone and in a way she is.  There are so many things to miss and the list is long but I can narrow it down to two things that I miss the most.
I honestly believed that my mom would be on the other end of the phone until the end of eternity.  Some people like to sit and watch TV but my mom liked to sit and talk on the phone.  She thought that cordless phones were best invention ever as then she could walk around the house and even go to the bathroom, while on the phone.
When I was young, mom had a routine.  After dinner was done and us kids had tidied up she would move a chair over to the phone and start calling.  Her calls were information seeking (gossip).  If she heard a rumour or even a whisper of a rumour, she was determined to get to the bottom of it, she just had to know.   So, she would call her circle of friends and under the guise of wanting a recipe or bitching about us kids and dad, she would skillfully extract information from them.  Let's say mom had heard that Bob and Linda were having marriage problems.  She would never come out and say "Sylvia, I heard Bob and Linda are having troubles in the marriage".  No, mom was like a spy she would say "Sylvia, I saw Linda today at Marra's and she seemed so sad, I hope she's not sick".  The person at the other end of the line didn't want my mom to get the wrong idea so if they had the information, they would divulge it and mom got her confirmation.  If they didn't have an answer, mom would wrap of the conversation with the usual "Well, I should let you go, I'm sure you have things to do," and that was that.  Then she would call someone else and try again to solicit information.  Really, she had gossipping down to a science. 
When I moved away from home mom would call me at least twice a day, in the morning before she left for work and in the evening.  If I wasn't home to answer the evening call, she'd call and call and call and call and call until I answered.  She would never leave a message but often I could hear remnants of a message in her commentary she would say to herself like "Really, where is she?" or the always popular big SIGH of frustration.  Sometimes just to piss her off I wouldn't call back and I would leave it until the following morning when she would call and not even say hello before reaming me out for not calling her back.  It was too funny.
When the dementia started to set in, mom would call me and everybody in her address book at least a half a dozen times a day.  Many of the calls I wouldn't answer because I had just talked to her maybe an hour earlier.  However now, I miss those calls.  I miss hearing that blueberries are on sale at Safeway and she'll get dad to go to the store so she can make muffins or that she just saw on CBC that bomb went off in the Gaza and how terrible that is.  I miss the sound of her voice on the other end of the phone.

The other thing I miss and most caregivers of dementia patients miss it too, is mom's smile.  It's a sad symptom of dementia as not only do they lose emotions and feelings but they lose control of the muscles that are needed to smile.  Dementia patients have a very blank, emotionless look over their face and it's sad to see and even sadder to see in my mother.  Mom had a big, tooth shining smile and her big brown eyes would light up with joy.  You could tell when mom was happy, she couldn't hide it and her smile would say it all and mom smiled a lot.  Mom wasn't a woman who gave a lot of praise in the form of words.  To this day I've never heard "Lisa-Marie, I'm proud of you," but then I don't need to.  I don't need to because mom was always there at any function or school awards day and her smile would say it all.  She smiles on the inside now and I can see it because it shines through.