Kids, even the adult versions, display the effects of the greatest influences in life … their parents. It can show up in being a mirror image of a parent, becoming similar in actions and reactions. Or it can have the opposite effect. Sometimes, a person may decide that mom or dad’s life was not one they want to mimic, and they deliberately turn the other way. But either way, parents have an enormous influence on their adult child. And parents need to realize that fact.

While substituting for a few days as the receptionist at a local funeral home, I had the opportunity to be introduced to sever...