Most people knew her simply as Mama-Alice. Not only did she bring me into this world, she also produced ten brothers and sisters, all of whom (as the old saying goes) are still alive and kicking.

Mama-Alice did lose three children before giving birth to my older sister, Mary, who now lives in New Jersey. Mary's nickname growing up was simply "Myrt," which I suppose was short for Myrtle, though no one seems to remember exactly how or why she acquired it.

Next came an older brother, George, who was affectionately called "Buzz." Again, no one seems to recall exactly how George acquired that moniker but it stuck with him for years.

I was third on the totem pole. My childhood nickname was "Yogi," because I bore an amazing resemblance to Yogi Berra. I do know how I got my nickname. My uncles, Arthur and Eli Mack gave it to me when I was only a child of five bagging groceries at Mack's Cash and Carry grocery store on West Main Street in Lexington, SC. I also looked a lot like the guy on Mad Magazine, Alfred E. Newman, especially when Joe Clyde Leaphart, the neighborhood bully, kicked out my front tooth during an afternoon football brawl on South Lake Drive.

Lorraine, nicknamed "Yainy," followed in the pecking order. She now lives in Columbia with her husband Pierre, and works at the University of South Carolina. She was also a talented singer and was the centerpiece for a popular band in the seventies and eighties called TLC (an acronym for Tender Loving Care).

"Freshing" was the next brother. Fred, who ran Aun's Feed Stable for years, acquired his nickname from my aunt, Laurie Mack, Arthur Mack's wife. She loved calling him that.

Brother Charlie, got the nicknames "thief" and "bones" from my older brother George. Till this day, I'm not sure how he acquired that unkind "thief" label, but "Buzz" still calls him that. Charlie, who was in TLC with "Yainy," did time in the military and is now retired and living in out west.

"Nino" or "the Dean," another version of Nino, was the nickname for sister Jeannine, who lives in the Columbia area. She was next in the Aun lineup which totaled 11 kids altogether.

Therese, fondly called "Tree," followed "Nino" in the family ranking. She works for CNN in Atlanta and has been involved in theatre as both an actress and a producer.

"John-John," the nickname for brother John, clearly was spinoff nickname from the Kennedy clan, whose own John-John Kennedy was born approximately the same time. Brother John is a restaurateur, living in the Lexington area.

Frances, called "sing-a-ling" because she sang all the time, got her nickname from my mother's sister, Olga Renard. She too works for CNN but is based out of New York.

The final child was Andy, simply called "bubba." He's my baby brother who is 18 years younger than yours truly. I recall when I was the Sports Editor of the Lexington Dispatch-News and a radio play-by-play analyst for Lexington High football back in the eighties, many thought that Andy was my son. He went on to become an attorney and lives in the Chapin area. His law firm has multiple offices in the greater Columbia area.

Mama-Alice was a remarkable soul who had all she could do to produce and raise 11 babies prior to her premature death from cancer on my birthday at the young age of 60.

She never worried about whether we came in too late… only if we came in too early. She trusted us because she wanted us to have the ability to make decisions, allowed us to succeed and… to occasionally fail.

As we celebrate Mother's Day, let's be mindful of the most important person in all our lives, our mothers.