I've been here for 15 years, I never plan on returning for any significant amount of time.
I went back for a week about 10 years ago and the place was shit.
As I'm only about 50 I've spent quite a chunk of my adult life living here - when you think about it that's been half of my adult life since I was 20, before that I don't really count it as I was too young to do much except go to school / get my first jobs, etc.
Sorry to hear about your Mothers death, that's going to be hard at most ages I would think.