An acquaintance some time ago took me up on my offer of a kombucha mother. They accumulate in my fridge and I had sent a call out. I gave him the mother with all the instructions and he said he would take care of it. A week later I met him and asked about his kombucha. He said, oh, he had forgotten all about the mother and it had died.
I was pretty upset about it. These mothers are alive. They live and breathe, as the video below shows.