Even though Mum has gone we still have six cows keeping her paddock manicured and she would be proud of the way her son-in-law is looking after her beloved kaukau.
My mother's other proudest moments - post passing away - would have to be her mokopuna, who have stood tall for what they believe in. A belief they have inherited from her and her grandparent's parents before them.
One of her mokopuna - a practising Rotorua lawyer, who carries her name - has been standing tall with tangata whenua of Standing Rock in North Dakota, US, against the might and power of the oil barons who have no understanding or respect for the indigenous culture of their country and want to bulldoze a pipeline straight through ancestral burial grounds.
Its something that would never happen in New Zealand now but did so more than frequently back in the day, when consultation and collaboration with tangata whenua was about as foreign as an Irish win against the All Blacks.
We have come a long way when it comes to cultural collaboration and it's the envy of many other countries who still struggle to have their indigenous voices heard.
Last Friday Mum's Wiwi(French)-European-Maori mokopuna was heard and honoured as the first Maori head Prefect of Bethlehem College.
To sit there and watch as my niece delivered a very moving farewell speech in Maori, French and English was as powerful as it was profound and Mum would have been bursting with pride.
It was only 12 short years ago when our boy attended Bethlehem College and it was culturally very uncool when it came to celebrating the Maori world view of life. I remember doing creative writing workshops - based around myths and legends of Mauao.
On the other side of the cultural coin, to see and hear the new mayor and his councillors sing a waiata was inspirational, as was the haka tautoko and waiata at Bethlehem College last Friday night. The founding father of BC, Graham "Kiriama" Preston, who was in the audience, must have been moved, as would have been my mother listening to the wise words of her mokopuna.
Oh well Mum, three more sleeps and we will wake up to a new US President and the circus will be all over bar the shouting from the loud losers, who in my opinion will be the trumpet-blowing Republicans.
Sure Hillary will win, and win quite comfortably, once the circus we know as the Excited States wakes up to what was coming their way. But the aftermath of a Republican loss is what scares me most about the election result on Wednesday.
Too many crazies with way too many guns is a perfect storm for post-election chaos and the fallout fuelled by the real face of a sore loser could be catastrophic.
Some like my Mum would say, "they are all crackers", just like the blinking waste of money on Guy Fawkes night.
Not so her mokos who know where they are from, where they are going and how they are going to get there.
And one thing is for sure, it won't be mourning an All Black loss, an all-white world view, or all night listening to big bangers scaring her beloved cows.
broblack@xtra.co.nz.
Tommy Kapai is a best-selling author and writer.
