Friday, July 22, 2011

Remembering my Mom

This post is all about my Mother, so if you want quilty it is not here today.

I want to remember my dear sweet mother today
 Had she lived, she would have been 91 years old.. Hard for me to imagine that.
Mother was 57 when she died. Her life was anything but easy!
What you read  here are things I remember about her and some of the things she told me over the years.

Mother was the strongest and wisest woman I have ever known. She became a widow at the age of 30 with seven children, 6 girls and one boy, to raise. All we had was each other. This was way before the entitlements widows get today. Times were very hard but she kept us together for as long as she could.
Then she made, what she said was the hardest choice in her life!! The oldest child was placed in a girls only home and the youngest went to live with one of Moms brothers and his family. The middle 5 were placed in a children's home . I was one of the middle 5. she moved from the small town we lived in, worked 3 jobs to support us in the children's home. Never forgot to write and send cards.  We were there for 9 months or close to it. We relocated to a bigger city and began a different life.
We were raised to be a close knit family. As we were all we had, just each other.

Mom always had such wonderful bits of wisdom to share. And as we were growing  up, there was a open door policy at our house. Our door was never locked as Mom said you never know who might need a place to stay for the night. I remember many Saturday mornings she would get up and count heads to see how many of the neighbor kids had come in to sleep on the floor or in chair, as their parents locked them out for the night. Our house was always buzzing with friends and neighbors.
 And  much love from her.

Just a few things she said to me about life and such.
You are the company you keep. so if you hang with low life's that is what you will be!!  ( Oh how true these words are in today's world)
Never let a man keep you under his thumb!  There is a story that goes with this about her own life.
Be your own person and do what you like..You will be much happier.
Don't be a follower be a leader. (Most of the family is that today)
Always be a person of your word, no matter what.
It's a mighty poor hen who can't scratch for a few chicks.!  (this one rigns in my ears even today)


The loss of her only son was very hard on her. Our brother died in 1966 at the age of 24. And mom was devastated by this. We all had a hard time coming to gripes with his death.,but made it through.
She never seemed to fully recover his death.

Mother was a beautiful singer and played the piano and guitar as well.

I miss her as much today as I did the day she died in 1977.  Never have I met a woman such as she was.
I could go on and on but will save some stories for later.

Happy Birthday MOM!! I love you and miss you so very much..

5 comments:

Vroomans' Quilts said...

Beutiful tribute - we need to hold dear even our loved ones past - their teachings are our lives.

Lucy said...

Those are wonderful memories you have of your mother. Thanks for sharing.

quilter000 said...

Sister what a nice write up on MOM. IK know she is proud of us all. She did well with the kids for sure!!
Patty the middle chil
3 older 3 younger

BillieBee (billiemick) said...

What a wonderful tribute to your Mom. Thanks for sharing.

Wilma Lee said...

Very nice Roma.