HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Mama as a little girl.

Mama was the oldest in a family of 6 children, there was almost 20 years between her and the youngest one.

Most of her life was spent being
raised by her mama deep in the country.
She was very poor growing up,
but always said they never realized it. 

When she was 10 years old her
daddy died.
She had to run through fields, and around the rural area to alert family and friends of his death. 

He was a junk dealer and ice man, and she loved him!
(See junkins' in my blood?)

 

Back then big blocks of ice
were sold door to door.
In Georgia that had to have been
one of the hottest, coolest jobs around.

Mama had a somewhat rocky
growing up, and start to her younger years.
She married a boy who lived down their dirt road,
but he went off to war.
She decided that the marriage was not for her...
it was a very, very short one. 

We saw her first husband once,
leaning against the door of the Piggly Wiggly.
I was probably 14 or 15.

She rushed me on and started laughing.

I think it was more of a nervous laugh
than a something funny laugh.
Mama spoke to  him, and he nodded.
I'm not sure he knew her that day. 

However, many years later, to Mama's disgust,
he showed up at our house. 
My daddy, bless his heart, was so innocent to it all.
He just continued working in the yard and left my Mama,
her sister and that old husband to visit.
Think my Aunt had pulled a fast one on my Mama.

Mama and Daddy were married 47 years,
so I guess by then their marriage was weighted by trust.
Daddy wasn't worried.

Mama met my daddy at a dance and he said right off
she was the one he'd marry.

She was and he did!

Mama lived to be 80 years old.
She had a severe stroke at 65 and came to live with us.
I cared for her, with Daddy's help, until his death.
Yes, she out lived him, by 8 years.
They said she would be a vegetable and not live very long,
but they didn't know Mama.
She lived the last 15 years of her life,
never touching food again.
She had a quick mind,
though there were times I wished,
doggone it,
she'd forget SOMETHING!

Mama always had it all together, though you sometimes had to look through a whirlwind.
She was creative, she loved to read and to cook.
She would line her kitchen counters with
cakes for family and friends.
The backdoor to our house was like a revolving door.
Most would show up around meal time.

She gave us all a childhood full of memories,
meant only for her babies.

Memories like having batteries explode in our oven
because she read that would recharge them.

Something for Pinterest,  I guess.
Boy, would she be a Pinterest addict with us!
My sweetest memories are of her rubbing
my back until I went to sleep.
She even showed up late one night
when I was so sick with her first grand boy.
She was scared of bad weather.
It always confused me that she would load us up,
right in the middle of the storm,
and head to my Granny's house.

Mama was more like Lucy, than Jackie O, I guess.
She loved us dearly though,
and would always say,

"I love you back."

I love you back too, Mama!