Long dream culminating in this scene:  I'm in a large, dimly lit room where many people mingle (I attended a poetry reading last night, which is probably the resource for this).  Standing against one wall, her back to the room is my mother.  She's dismally unhappy.  A young girl stands beside her, also with back to the room.  Both have very long strait hair, unlike my mother in life.  I approach and put my arms around my mother's back, trying to say calming and reassuring words.  Finally, I say "I love you, mom."  Immediately her body pops like a soap bubble, leaving me holding her empty skin for just a second.  But I understand that my declaration of love has freed her, and ended her suffering.  Now she can go on to some other place. 

Very positive dream.  I really felt like I was making some kind of astral plane communication of something that needed to be said.