Mother's Day!

Sunday was my first Mother's Day without my mother.  All day I thought about blogging but just never felt like actually sitting down at the computer and doing it.  Today I feel like sharing a few things about my mother that I admire and that I'll miss.

First of all my mother always had time for me.  When I was little she spent hours and hours on the floor playing with me & the little cowboys and Indians, animals and soldiers that I loved.  She put nail polish dots on one set of army guys so that I could have opposing armies.   I remember making up elaborate stories for these little figures and sharing them with her & I remember that she listened and asked questions.  A few years ago I asked her what kind of little child I had been and her one word answer was 'busy'.  Maybe these times with the little plastic figures were my calm quiet time.

When I cleaned out her attic guess what I found?  A box filled with all those great little plastic toys.  Maybe I can play with them with my grandchildren some day!

My Mother was always active.  She walked and rode her bike and mowed her lawn and raked leaves and picked up pecans & then shelled them, swept her garage, pulled weeds, made candy, read, followed college basketball, did embroidery & crewel work and I could go on and on......  Until she was about 80 I never remember her just sitting down and doing nothing.  She didn't like house work too much but she did it anyway.  She said that her hip hurt when she pushed a vacuum cleaner but not when she pushed a lawn mower!

We didn't really make my 88 year old mother shovel snow last Christmas.  It was just a photo op!

My mother was dedicated to her church and served faithfully in many different positions.  For most of my growing up years she typed and printed  the church bulletin.  Of course this was way before computers so she typed on mimeograph paper and then ran the bulletins off by hand.   She was treasurer of her church and spent sleepless nights worrying about the church budget.  My mother was a great example of serving where ever you are needed.

Her church was the First Presbyterian Church in Lonoke, Arkansas which was founded by our ancestors the Witherspoons.  My great grandparents were the first couple married there.  My parents were married there too, on Christmas Day in 1948. I developed a strong faith in Jesus Christ while attending this church.

My mother adored her grandchildren.  I could post hundreds of pictures of her with my four children.  Even though I was an only child, she adapted quickly to a more chaotic household when she visited and I think she thoroughly enjoyed it.  Mary and Matt each got to visit her several times by themselves.  By the time Johnny & Scott were old enough for solo visits she thought she was too old to have them by herself so she invited me to bring them one at time for some quality grandma time.  She arranged pony rides, let them rent whatever movies they wanted, shopped for whatever they wanted, arranged play dates with friends with pools, let them eat as much junk as they wanted and had a seemingly endless supply of quarters for the video arcade.  She set up a little office in one corner of her living room for Mary and outfitted it with an old phone & adding machine and every kind of paper, notepad & envelope you could imagine.  Mary was in heaven!  Another favorite memory of the kids is eating watermelon in bed with grandma.  I don't know why that made such an impression on them but it surely did!

My mother valued family.  My grandfather died when my mother was 12 years old and she and her brother, sister, and mother moved in with her maternal grandparents.  Her Dad's siblings (I think there were 11 of them) sent money every month to help provide for Moma & her siblings.  My mother often reminded me that this was during the depression and no one had any money so taking on 4 extra mouths to feed was a sacrifice and sending money each month was a sacrifice but she always said, "that is what families do."  I have heard stories since of things that she has done for family members that would also be called sacrifices.  She was a wonderful example.  

Here she is with her brother and sister.  My mother is the one in the plaid shirt.  Don't you love the glasses?

Thinking about her these last days had made me realize how much she influenced my life.  I know that I'll never really be without her because she is such a part of me.