Today's my mother's birthday

Daddy and Mother 1939

Today would have been my mothers 86th birthday. She died five years ago last Novemeber at 80 years old. She had a massive stroke while on the phone with her Sunday School teacher. It seems just like yesterday that I got a phone call from my brother telling me to come to the hospital and it did not look good. She never regain conciousness so no one got to say goodbye.

My mother was a special lady. And lady is what she was. She was one of 10 children that grew up during the depression years. Well she didn't 'grow up' during the depression, she was born in 1922 so she was eight years old in 1929. I remember her singing the 'bugle boys' song and dancing the jitterbug.

My mother was a character as a child, teenager and all the way up to her death. Everybody that knew her liked her. Enjoyed being around her. She was the fun of any gathering. Her favorite actor was Lucille Ball and she was a lot like her. She got into some serious/silly hair raising situations. By the time she was 12 she had fallen off of a railroad trestle and cracked her skull, been bitten by a rattlesnake and swallowed an open safety pin! But she lived to be 80!

The first year after she died I had her five surviving sisters over for dinner. We really had a good time listening to the stories they told us that Mother never did. Like the time she had made a date with two boyfriends for the same night. She had planned to go out with the one that got there first, but they arrived at the same time. My grandmother was supposed to handle the situation, but instead she sat down and had a lively conversation of her own with them. Finally one of them left, it was not the one that became my dad, he waited the other one out. My aunt telling the story was the oldest of all the siblings and said it was very funny at the time. They regaled us with story after story of Mom and we all laughed till we cried.

I miss her. She used to tell me when I did not call her often enough that I would wish I could call her someday and she was so right.

My father died when I was only two years old and mother raised five children by herself. She did a good job if I have to say so myself. All of us are born again christians. All of us have been married to one partner (no divorces) and we have all raised our children to follow Christ. My mother did such a good job that I really did not feel that I was deprived of a parent. She was mother and father and did a great job.

My twin sister called me this morning and we sang happy birthday to her. We know she is in heaven singing with the saints and would not come back if she could!

We have no doubt we will see her again someday.