My Mother

My Mom died in November 1999. She was 92 years old. Even though she's been gone over ten years, I still have dreams about her. Some of the things we remember most about her was her unwillingness to give up; she would challenge anyone if she knew she was right. So here we have this little woman who had to use a pillow on the seat of her car, looking through the steering wheel to meet her friends, drive to her sister's house 50 miles away or just go shopping. She cook pick up anything in the craft store, check it out and then go home and make a replica.

Mom showed us how to stand up for ourselves. She was the best cook and housekeeper and sadly, I didn't follow in her footsteps. Maybe, it's something of being the middle child. She was patient and sat with us at night doing our homework. Jeannette & I were seriously challenged when it came to math and Mom with only a 9Th grade education, pounded it into us. She played the piano and we loved it when she played Christmas carols on Christmas Eve. We gathered around and just sung our hearts out. The tradition was to be there on Christmas Eve for Santa's visit (a fireman disguised as Santa) who came into the house and gave presents to all the children. We had a Pollyanna, a Grab Bag and food to follow. It was always a wonderful evening.

When we were little kids, Mom & Dad would pack a picnic lunch and we would take a walk in the woods, have our lunch and look for Indian arrowheads, caves and other interesting things. Our Dad was special too but I'll save him for another time. Sometimes, it's impossible to talk about one and not the other. At night, after dinner & homework, we would play games; anagrams, Chinese checkers and Checkers. We would build card houses. When money was tight, Mom would sew new dresses for our dolls for Christmas and we were happy with that. As Mother was assistant Librarian, we couldn't wait to get our first library card to check books out.

Our lives were fairly even, I think. My parents never argued in front of us that I remember. Mom did demand respect for herself and her adult friends. I remember one time walking over to her friend's house and apologizing. It seems I "talked back" to her and my mother was horrified.