Talking about My Mom

Today would have been my mother's 90th birthday. She passed away in February of 2004. My mom was the best person in the world. No, I know she wasn't perfect. None of us are but you know I only remember the good. The only complaint that I have about my mom is that she used to serve Oyster Stew on Christmas eve and I hated that! lol If that is the only thing I have to complain about I am doing pretty darn good. Mom was born in the Sand Hills of Nebraska, the youngest of 6 living children. Her oldest sibling, my Aunt Betty was 20 years older than her. Mom nearly idolized her. She and dad met at Montgomery Wards, in North Platte, where they both worked, mom in the office, dad in the shoe department. They were married in a small ceremony on Sept. 4, 1938. Mom had 3 miscarriages before she finally had my oldest brother, Mike. When World War II came along mom was very active in the North Platte War effort. She, along with good friends, Doris Kugler, Gracie Berthe and other close friends were all apart of the North Platte Canteen. I am so proud of her for that and we really knew very little about it until just before she passed away! She was a modest woman. I used to think that mom didn't have much of a sense of humor, but then she told me a story of how she made a chocolate cake for her brother and put exlax in the frosting when she was a teenager!!! My mom did THAT???? Mom loved us and her grandchildren. The second picture above is the very last picture of my mom before she passed away. She is pictured with my granddaughter who was just 2 weeks old. You lose one and you gain one. The day before mom passed away, ALL of my children were able to come up and visit her with all of the grands. After they left, I was sitting with mom. She started to tear up and say she wished she had been a better mom.... OH MY WORD!!! I shared with my mom just what a wonderful mom she had been. The memories of stirring up a cake mix in the kitchen in our Lincoln home in that old green ceramic bowl. (I thought it was so ugly then, today I wish I had it!), the time when I was in my first year of junior college and she stayed up late into the night (and she worked fulltime) to finish up my cheerleading skirt that I needed the next day for a game, the day I came in crying because I had been following a squirrel around the old oak tree in the neighbors yard and it disappeared and she had been watching from the window. Her being our Blue bird and Campfire Girls leader. As mom failed that last day in the hospital, my brothers, myself and her grandchildren came in and out of her room. I was reading her Psalm 23 and mom was reciting it right along side of me. That was such a blessing to me. At the moment that mom took her last breath, my brother was holding her left hand, I was holding her right and my two sons were at the foot of her bed each gently rubbing a foot. We were talking about her and her activeness in the North Platte Canteen when she took her last breath. She left our presence knowing she was loved. The days that followed were bitter sweet. The joy is that I will be reunited with my mother again. I love you, Mom!

I am sharing this today with Talk about Tuesday hosted by The Lazy Organizer.