Who is Patricia Gottsch (before Alzheimer's)

I've arrived at a new place today after venting so much misery about this disease, to where I'd rather talk about who my mom was before she took ill. I think it's a much better story. She has not passed away. She is still here on earth, living with my dad, but only her essence remains, which is innocence and joy. She is 71 years old.

My mom, Patricia Ann Gottsch, maiden name,Dodt, was the 4th child in a Catholic family of 10. There were six girls and four boys. Her father was in real estate, had a restaurant on the beach in Santa Cruz, was a staunch Catholic who invited the priest over to supper on Sundays. I only know she was a gift wrap girl at J.C. Penny Company and that her dad taught her to save her money. When my dad met her at a dance in Santa Cruz, she was 20. They married when she was 21. Honeymooned in Lake Tahoe. My dad says she cried all the way there because she didn't want to leave her family. My dad was 23. They were so young.
She became a mother and a homemaker. She never asked for anything for herself. Content with little niceties, flowers, birds, children. To me she was like Doris Day. Naive, sweet, innocent. She prepared 3 square meals every day, cleaned house, did laundry like a Gap employee who folded clothes crisp enough to display in a store, rolled her blonde hair once a week, wore only lipstick, and idolized my father.
She sang the French song, "Ce sera sera, whatever will be, will be", to us. She listened to Roger Miller albums. She woke me up when Elvis Presley or Tom Jones were on the Ed Sullivan Show.
She rose at 5:00am every morning to make my dad a hot breakfast of bacon, eggs and coffee. Then made lunches for all us kids, customized to our taste for mayonaise, mustard, balony or cheese only sandwiches. She scrolled our names on neatly folded brown paper bags in beautiful red cursive with a red ElMarco felt pen and lined them on the top of the bookshelf by the door.
We wore neatly cleaned pressed uniforms and went to Catholic school. She made life beautiful. She believed in love,God, and always stood by the underdogs.