My oh My How can I pick my favorite photo of all time

These are probably my 2 favorites, but come on how can one pick their favorite photo or photos.  Does one choose because of some historical event, like a War, or does one choose because the photo makes you smile and remember someone who is no longer with you.
This is my mom, let me share something about my mom.  She was born on Nov. 15,1930 and died on June 22, 1999, 2 days before my birthday.  So now on my birthday, I celebrate my mothers life and the woman that gave me life...I have had friends throughout the years and even strangers approach me and ask me, how do you 2 have such a great relationship, I barely speak to my mom.  It never occurred to me that their were mothers and daughters who never got a long.  She was my best friend, and best mother a daughter could ask for,  she held me when no one else would, (I stuck a piece of sponge up my nose and no one noticed it, not our family doctor.  But because it was way up there it smelled bad, but my mom still held me thru the night).  She taught me how to pick up things with my toes, she taught me how to dance to the big bands, she took me to my first musical, (Mary Popkins) , she taught me to love the great musicals, she sang with me in the living room while I acted out one of our favorite scenes from a movie.  She showed me the love of family and taught me to love history.  She held me as I cried after my first boyfriend broke up with me, then she asked if I want her to go and beat him up...She drove me to dance lessons, ice skating lessons, piano lessons, soft ball practice, golf practice.  She taught me how to play golf..she taught me how to drive...She welcomed ever neighborhood kid into our house, all of my friends and brothers friends, even if we weren't there..she would feed them, she would play kick the can with them... she played with me in the rain...and when she need me, when she needed me to help her out after my dad left her,  I said I would be honored.  After I moved back in to town, every Thursday during the summer we would go to the park and listen to the free concert, and yes I even went to BINGO with her.....I still miss her.
  So every June 22, I visit her grave and just tell her all about the ancestors I have found, all the things that I am going through,  I thank her for having me, and I place some flowers on her grave.  This mothers day, I will place flowers on her headstone,  I just wish she would have been alive when I found the first Ericksons that came to the US...On Memorial day, I will visit all of the graves that are close to Rockford and clean the winter grime off of them, place a few flowers on their headstones, just like my mom and I used to do,  in June I will go again. I am my mothers daughter and proud of it................I miss my mom, I celebrate her life and I will do so not with tears but with laughter............