I Skyped my mom in Pennsylvania to wish her a happy 91st birthday. Sally Warner was born on 9/11, so it’s easy to remember the date.

Talking to my hard-of-hearing mom on the phone is always difficult, but video Skyping her from China is a Mount Everest-level challenge. The lousy Internet connection in my office breaks up the picture and garbles the sound. Also, my mom tends to click the wrong buttons, resulting in a lost picture or muted voice.

This call was particularly bad. We got cut off about a dozen times before I finally reached her long enough to say Happy Birthday. At 91, my mom uses email, cruises the Web, goes to Broadway shows, visits museums, reads several books a week, runs the library at her seniors development and plays a mean game of Scrabble. I think I’ve beaten her twice in my entire life, and I make my living with words.

My father died 22 years ago, but my mother is still going strong. Most of her friends and closest relatives are gone, yet she keeps plowing ahead. I admire her optimism, her determination and her desire to get the most out of life.  She grew up poor in the Bronx, an only child from a broken family. But she managed to get a master’s degree, become a high school teacher and raise children who didn’t turn into ax murderers.

Congrats, mom!