This was the year of the return. I began the gradual return to a somewhat normal life which included attending various events—most memorably: media duty for women's ministries retreats, annual church retreat, annual statewide convocation (Camp Meeting), and eight regional town hall meetings around the state followed by the main constituency session. More memorably, however, was the loss of my mother and processing how that affected me, and also the loss of my stepdaughters' father and how that affected them.