Oh that's great to hear. Perhaps your mom is always guiding your hand when you cook, or perhaps, from her you learned to be that good?
I have a similiar plant, a passion vine. We had it for years and nothing nada. Then my husband found a red passion vine clipping at buried it at the base of the original vine. Ever since it has bloomed every year. We think it just needed a friend.
We had a lilac when I was growing up, a huge old bush that would bloom every which way, covered in blooms that could be smelled all over the property. I think they need to be a certain age before they bloom, but perhaps you just needed the reminder of the beauty of your mom.