Mother Of Two

TODAY IS MY LAST official Mother's Day. I will be accepting gifts, cards and words of affection for years to come, to be sure. But it will be in honor of what I was, not what I will ever be again. My youngest child will leave for college next fall, and with her will go my daily responsibilities, and my definition. "Mother" will be the salutation on a card. It will not be what I do. The truth is, my list of mothering tasks has been shrinking every year since this last child was weaned and potty trained.

Jada Bottoms -- a 2-year-old with pretty braids and a lively personality -- was all smiles last night as relatives and friends held a candlelight remembrance for the mother she is too young to remember, fatally shot exactly two years earlier on the front porch of an East Baltimore rowhouse. For now, Jada's family -- her grandmother, great-grandmother, aunts and uncles -- do the grieving and pray that police will find out who killed her mother, Clarissa Ward. Ward, 17, was shot in the back of the head while taking down Christmas lights early Jan. 4, 2002, outside the house where she lived with her mother, Tammy Baker.

Carol March, a 44-year-old mother of two who provides day care out of her home near Dundalk, has been a fan of singer Michael Jackson for 30 years. She still is -- despite new allegations that the pop star molested a boy. A week ago, March traveled to a rally in New York, outside the Virgin Records Megastore in Union Square, to support Jackson. She described the experience for The Sun: We all had candles and we all had our posters and signs and things. We had a CD player and we played Michael's music -- some of the oldest hits and some of the newest ones and his newest single, and of course 'D.S.

On November 20, 2003 YVONNE B., beloved mother of two sons Morris L. Jr., and Jeffrey L., two daughters Karen E. Wilson-Starks and Valerie Kimble. Friends may call at the Wylie Funeral Home P.A., 638 N. Gilmor St., on Tuesday from 5 to 8 P.M. Family will receive friends on Wednesday 11 A.M. Funeral 11:30 A.M. at Westside Church of Christ, 7009 Johhny Cake Rd., interment following. Inquiries at www.wyliefuneralhome.com.

On October 11, 2003, LORRAINE CAPPELLO, formerly of Waldorf, MD. She was a devoted wife of John; beloved mother of two sons, Darrell and Mark Strom, four daughters Carol Akers, Mary Strom, Cheryl Doman, and Lori Taguding. Also the the loving grandmother of 15 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren. Also surviving her are three stepdaughters, two stepsons, nine stepgrandchildren. A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, October 18, at 11 A.M. at Inverness Presbyterian Church, 7909 Wise Avenue, Dundalk, MD. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Johns Hopkins Pediatric Oncology Inpatient Fund, in c/o Betsy Merrill CRB 2M54, 1650 Orleans Street, Baltimore, MD 21231.

Shameka Yolanda Fludd hoped that she would attend college, that she would be a good mother to her young son and daughter and that the child growing inside her would be healthy, family members said. Those dreams were dashed Sunday when the 23-year-old day care worker was fatally shot in her Oakland Mills apartment. Her death is the county's third homicide of the year. "She was finally dreaming about her future and making plans, and then something like this happens," said Louella Stukes, Fludd's grandmother.

A drunken driver who killed a man just days before he was to be married was ordered yesterday to spend 18 months in jail after the judge said that he was unable to consider an unusual sentencing request by the victim's mother. Kimberly Ann Honaker, a mother of two who had pleaded guilty to automobile manslaughter in February, will be allowed to leave jail to go to work under Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Joseph P. Manck's sentence. The judge also placed Honaker, 31, of Glen Burnie on five years' probation that includes speaking about the fatal crash to area groups.

Lenore Breslauer, 80, a founding member of the antiwar citizens group Another Mother for Peace during the Vietnam War, died of lung cancer Friday at her home in West Hollywood, Calif. Another Mother for Peace, a grass-roots organization launched by a group of women in Los Angeles in 1967, grew to have more than 450,000 people on its mailing list, and its logo became an internationally recognized symbol for peace: A sunflower bearing the message, "War is not healthy for children and other living things."

MALARIA. WHAT in the world is it doing in our area? And how worried should we be? Two teen-age residents of Loudoun County, Va., contracted the disease last month, a rarity because neither had traveled abroad. I am neither a doctor nor a health care worker, but I know enough to be scared. My perspective is one of a mother who has traveled regularly to malaria-infested regions and watched women bury their children. Every 30 seconds a child dies of malaria. Malaria is a killer, one of the worst in the world, especially of children under the age of 5. The United Nations estimates as many as 1 million children die each year from the infected bite of a mosquito; thousands more are left with permanent neurological damage.

1. Picking up Cheerios can be a fun game for babies. 2. Keeping a stocked diaper bag is always useful. 3. Placing a mark on the toddler-size diapers makes it easier to tell them apart from the infant size. If these sound like some benign child care tips, then you don't get it. They are much more than that. They are survival strategies for the average household of four. Barbara Larrabee thought them up. Out of necessity. Six months ago, she and her husband, John, welcomed a second son, Mitchell, to their home in Phoenix and life hasn't been the same since.