My sweet mama!

my mama gave me this dictionary and it reminds me of her

What were you doing 18 years ago?  I was at the men's SEC basketball tournament in New Orleans.  Mississippi State won that year, it was 1996. Our seats were in the Mississippi State section.  We sat behind a family of sisters, brothers, cousins, mother, father, mamaw and papaw.  I forget how many seat they had but they had all the seats in their row but one.  They always get tickets for every seat but one and they always have a game about guessing the occupation of the person who is in that one seat.  He was a refrigerator repair man in 1996 and someone guessed that!  Miss State had a player named Whit that year and all those around pronounced it with many more syllables than usual.

18 years ago my sweet mama died.

There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of something I'd like to tell her or show her.

I'd like to tell her thank you for letting me be me.  For not getting on to me for what ever hair brain ideas I had.  I'd like for her to meet Mr Wonderful and I know she would eat him up with a spoon.  He would love her too. I think she would love it that Andrew and Taylor would soon be living in Atlanta.  I am sure they would have supper probably once a week.  She would love to see Kaitlin's art and hear about John's job.  We would take her to see John and Marisa and Atticus in St Louis.  I would ask her how she managed to have her grandchildren live far away but still keep them close.

So this year to honor my mama I plan to write several letters and read lots of books.  I plan to love on Mr Wonderful from afar and one day I'll tell him all about his wonderful great-grandmother.  I plan to encourage my children in all they do and hold my tongue.  They have their own lives to live.  I plan to celebrate each day like she did.  I plan to stop and smell the roses each and every day because she was so good at doing that.

Call your mama today and tell her you love her because one day you may not have that privilege!


    

All August, All Addie Lou, Almost Over

I have so enjoyed this month of All August All Addie Lou!! Thank you so much AnnN for the suggestion!!

My mother loved to learn. I never remember a day that I didn't know I would graduate from college.

My mother graduated from college in 1947.  When she went to college she took her ration book from WWII so the dining hall could use her coupons to get food.

My mother was the first in all her family to graduate from college.  And I mean first ever.  What a wonderful legacy she has now- John, Elaine, Charles, Frances, me, Carl, Andrew, Taylor, Kaitlin and John. Plus I wonder how many more of her cousins and their children have now graduated.

This is mama at her 30th  college reunion.  She is on the front right.  The officers are on the front row.

Here she is in 1947.  She is again on the far right.  I love her shoes!

I am struck this month by how all the pictures show that Mama treated Howard just like the rest of us.  She was not bound by his disability.  I knew this but to see it in pictures was so moving.   I didn't realize til this month how many times we went to the cemetery to Ronnie's grave.  I was talking to my brother, John, about this and he said that many years ago he decided to see if he could find the grave.  As soon as he found the cemetery, he drove right to the grave.  He said that he just knew where it was and it had been years since he was there.  I have several pictures of cousins that I plan to send to them.

I didn't get the wreck room cleaned out.  But I did give several bags and things away- like maybe 10.  It is a start.  Hopefully I'll do more in September!!

I hope to get these photos in an album soon so I can enjoy them more often.

My mama was such a special person.  I am sorry you all didn't get to know her.  I hope you know her just a little better through my rambling thoughts in August.

She was a writer

This picture shows how I often remember my mama.  My mother loved to write letters.  When she sent birthday cards to her friends, they also got a wonderful letter as she recalled what all had happened and was happening in our lives.  When I left for college at age18 until she died when I was 38, she wrote me a letter every week unless we were together. That's lots of letters!!!  It is on TO-DO list to put the letters in order and get them bound.

Another thing I like about this picture is the books behind my mama.  She had her encyclopedias and a dictionary within her reach so she could look up what she needed.  When I picture my mama today, I see her at her desk with a computer!!  

I always loved this desk.  It has lots of cubbies and drawers.  My mother used this desk for years and then she bought a roll top desk.  When mother died and we were talking about her things and who wanted what- I asked for this desk and my brother, John, said that was great because he wanted the roll top.  So this desk resides at my house now and I fondly think of my sweet mama and all the letters she wrote at it.  

The heart of our home

I love this first picture.  If I had cropped it in close enough you would have just seen smiling faces but if you really look at the picture you will realize that we are in a cemetery.  My daddy wrote on the top the names of all those who are in the picture.  He even listed Ronnie and we are at his grave.  This picture speaks to me of the resiliency of my parents.  They never gave us the feeling that they were victims or that the world had something against them for the loss of their children.  My mother had a small plague in her kitchen that said 'When Life gives you lemons, you make lemonade'.  My parents loved us dearly and I never doubted that.  My mother turned her loss into true appreciation of the children she had.

Here is your laugh for the day!! Notice the cups on the table- Just like Uncle Si in Duck Dynasty!!

I love the smiles on my parents faces.  They loved Howard and celebrated  all his birthdays too!!

I love the hands in this picture.  My parents loved us all.

Devil's Lake, ND? why yes it is!

My mama all bundled up!

My mother was born in SD but soon moved to Devils Lake, ND.  If you google Devils Lake, you will find that the population today is a little over 7,000 folks.  Mother always said that she could remember laying in bed at night and hearing the coyotes howling.  Living in ND meant that for Mother's whole life she wore an undershirt from November 1 til May 1, if she didn't, she was chilly.  She tried to make us all wear an undershirt for that time also.  I am sure we did as kids.  When my precious mama died during March of 1996, I was charged with picking out the clothes that she was buried in.  My sweet brother, John, reminded me to get her an undershirt!  

 I had to add the last picture in this group.  It is me and my daddy.  I never knew he was the third Blue's Brother!!!

Sorry this picture is blurry but there is a little Scottie on the porch named Bonnie

All bundled up.  Look at those stockings!

My mama is the young girl on the right

My Mother's Outlook

My parents both had the same recessive gene for a neuro-muscular disease.  Werdnig Hoffman or Spinal Muscular Atrophy.  61 years ago when their first child was born with the disease it didn't have a name.  The doctor sat down with my mother and told her that her son, Ronnie, was going to die because they could see the atrophy happening.  The doctors suggested that my parents have more children.  47 years ago, when Howard was born, the disease had a name and a life expectancy- 6 months.  Also, my parents found out that they had a 1 in 3 chance of having a baby with Wernig Hoffman.  My mother said that if she had known that she wouldn't have had any more children.

Below are pictures of Howard.  He was born when I was 7 and died when I was 15.  As I was going through these pictures I was struck with how full Howard's life was.  He never said a word but that never stopped my mother from exposing him to so many things.  He never had a bed sore and I know why, my mother kept him moving, which was a major feat.  When Howard died he weighed 57 pounds.  We could all pick him up because mother knew his life might depend on us getting him out of the house someday.  

My mother never complained about having a baby with this disease.  Mother said that she was thankful that God had given this baby to us and not an unwed mama who couldn't handle his care.  I never realized all the sacrifice until I had my children and I got a small taste of it.

I am more impressed with all my mother did with each passing year.

books were important to us all

Howard was at all birthday parties

Charles with Howard outside

Mama and Howard outside at our house

Howard loved to laugh.  We all enjoyed making him laugh.

 outside on a hot summer day

Notice the fun jammies and that he had a boy haircut

Howard and the Christmas tree

Addie Lou, I love you!

Today is my precious mama's birthday.  If she were living, she would be 86.  That seems so young to me.  If she were living I picture that we would spend the day together. My children, Carl and my brothers and their wives would be there too.  There would be lots of laughter!  There always was.

I plan to celebrate my mama's birthday by reading a book she would have enjoyed.  Walker Percy remembered by David Horace Harwell.  My mama loved Walker Percy.  I find his work a bit, shall we say, interesting-different-unusual, but I still keep coming back to it.  There is something in his writing that my mama enjoyed and I am searching to find that, to find a piece of her.  Maybe it is just that I feel like I am reading something that she has read so in a weird sort of way it is a shared book, a shared experience.

Today is also my Half-Birthday!  I always treat my self today because if my precious mama was still living I'd be treating her!!  We shall eat out today and I don't plan to do any chores around the house.  My  biggest treat for the day is Carl.  He is taking the whole day off to be with me.  What an amazing gift that is!

I hope you have an amazing October 7th.  I'll let you know how mine goes!