[He waves a hand, that sheepish look still on his face.] It's fine. I was able to talk to her before she passed away...I think she was glad to finally get away from the pain, y'know? [He adds, to clarify;] She had lung cancer.

[...he thinks on this for a bit, trying to pick out the best adjectives to describe his well-meaning, slightly eccentric mother.]

...well, she was kind of weird, I guess.

[He smiles fondly, as if a memory was brought up just by that one word.] I mean, not in a bad way. She had a lot of quirks.