Grateful for my mom...

(My mom at the same age I am now...cute top Mommy!)

Well I figured I'd better post about my mom today...since it's close enough to Mother's Day to be a good time...but far out enough not to reduce me to an emotional wreck.

Well I always idolized my mother...and still do.

She grew up in a poor (I mean poor)...hick (sorry...it's true)...country home in the middle of tall Mississippi pines growing in blazing red dirt. There small home had five rooms. A kitchen, a boys room (which became a bathroom in the 50s), a girl's room, a master bedroom (if you could call it that) and the parlor.

My mom was the youngest girl of 10 and the second to the last. She grew up with the best and worst of the situations of a small home overrun with kids. I don't know much about her upbringing...she was very quiet about that. I've gleaned from various sources that it might have been abusive. Her favorite brother...the oldest...went into the war in 1939 and they said she cried so long when she left. I'm suspecting that he protected her alot.  Because of her childhood...we were VERY sheltered growing up. The flipside of that is my mom always made our home a fun place to be. That way she'd keep an eye on us. Even when I didn't come home right away from school (due to a talking detention)...my friends would come to my house...without me...to get a snack and have MY mom ask about their day.

My mom did many things well. For one...she married my dad. Many folks say this so I'm not alone...out of 8 brothers...she picked one of the more God fearing loyal ones.

She also had a knack for cleaning, decorating, entertaining, cooking and sewing. She so desperately tried to teach me those things...but I had cruising, curfews, and cute Christian boys on my mind. I was so busy with trying to get out of her house I didn't realize that there were so many things I needed to learn. (I came back with my tail-tucked in my 20s...but ohhh it's so hard to learn on the fly.) She'd laugh as I'd burn Bill's dinner or or try to make "green" dressing...too much sage Lorrie...and then she'd put her apron on and save the day.

We were very close.  Probably too close for our own good...so when she contracted lymphoma in March of 96 my sister and I were devestated.  My mom, in between chemo and shunts being put in, did what she did best...cooked and hosted a family reunion for 100 folks at her home...there were wall to wall people ALL over her house. 

Spiritually my mom wouldn't consider herself a giant.  She was baptized at an early age as they do in Mississippi, but didn't come to know the Lord until sometime in her 30s. She slept with a bible next to her bed and she could be found "digging out treasures". She was the women who ALWAYS worked the kitchen, the nurses station (she was an RN) and mission circles. But any mother who prays with her children, takes them to church, tells them what's right from wrong according to the bible is a spiritual giant in my book.

She was always so careful about her looks in her 30s and 40s...but God humbled her in that department.  She got diabetes a few years before she passed away and went from being a little overweight to obese. She lost some weight when she got sick...and always joked it was the best diet.

As uptight as I am...she was always laid back. We're blessed to have her diary she kept and she was so grateful and used the word blessed on every page. I'm still amazed how she worked a business, cooked and cleaned and acted like..."Oh I just put it together".  How'd she do that?

Of course folks aren't perfect...and my mother wasn't either. She was obsessed about spiders and anything crawling. She LOVED to shop, and although she was never in debt, but once said... "I could do more for ministry if I stayed out of the malls." She was probably too laid back and would often do more than necessary in group situations. She let her brothers and others borrow too much money and when a kid was acting bad in Mississippi or California, they'd send them to my mom's house.

Well like I said yesterday...a good mom is one where her children will rise up and praise her. Mommy although you're in heaven...today I'm blessed and Praise God for you.

So what are you doing today in radioland? and  one day when I see my mom and Jesus in heaven..."I'm gonna be so hhaaappppppyyy."(sorry inside joke for my sister.)