HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there. I hope your special day is a wonderful day! And a special Happy Mother's Day to the wonderful mothers of my grandchildren! As a tribute to my own mother who is now 94, I am adding this story about her to my blog today.

MOTHER

I am my mother’s firstborn child and it was five years before my sister was born and seven years before my brother was born. Daddy was away for much of my first five years because of World War II. Mother and I were close during my early years and I suspect that time together helped us to forge a wonderful relationship that has lasted for more than sixty years.

My mother has always been a gentle, caring, upbeat person and she spent untold hours with the three of us children. She read to us, helped us with our homework, and let us help her work in the yard. I remember her violets in the back yard when I was very young in Pampa. In Amarillo she had day lilies all along one side of our house, roses on the fence, and beautiful iris of all colors that she brought over from Mammy’s house. Mother was a great cook, although many things that she made came out of a can or box. I did not learn to cook “from scratch” until I married and left home. However, I do remember Mother’s marvelous cornbread that she served with a pot of pinto beans; her applesauce squares, pineapple upside-down cakes, and the date loaf candy that she made for Christmas.

With Mother’s help and guidance we learned to sew, knit, crochet, embroider, bead and to do almost every craft imaginable. She loved trying new things and let us work along with her. One year we did copper tooling, another year we beaded Styrofoam balls for Christmas and papier-mâché fruit another year. We watched her learn to make silver jewelry, create lovely needlework, knit sweaters and crochet Afghans. When our brother, Joe, joined an Indian Dance group through Boy Scouts, we all pitched in to make and bead his costumes and watch as he made his cast silver jewelry. I suspect that there were not many crafts that Mother did not try herself and she was eager to help us try anything we wanted. One year for Christmas I got leather tools and a mallet because I had expressed an interest in making a tooled belt. Another year we got a wood burning set and burned some interesting pictures into wood plaques and wooden boxes. I still have a wooden music box that I burned my name into and then varnished.

Mother has always been a marvelous listener, very easy to talk to and there was almost nothing that I did not tell her. I have always enjoyed being with Mother and consider her one of my best friends, as well as an advisor and supporter. After I grew up and left home, I looked forward to going home and staying up late talking to Mother—pouring my heart out to her and listening to her words of wisdom—given freely.

It is wonderful to have been gifted with such a talented and caring Mother!