The first step is to resist thinking
that this is all a life comes down to.
Allow yourself to hear her
as you round a corner in the basement.
She says, No, there’s more.
More than you can carry,
more than you could let go
in a lifetime or two.
Marilyn Rauch Cavicchia 
If this is your real life experience, I’m sorry. So difficult to deal with what remains. And there’s the smell, right? The lingering scent of mom. Wish they could bottle that.
Thanks, Angie. I don’t really smell my mom anywhere, or remember a smell from her, other than cigarettes from her smoking days. (Not as sad/distressing as it sounds — it’s OK.) I do have scent memories of my grandmother, though, and a particular box of buttons that brings it all back.