Nineteen seventeen

Today is the day in the year above one of the most wonderful women in the world came into existence. A woman who loved to laugh, loved to make other people laugh and did it well. A woman who could take a bit of this and a bit of that and cook the best tasting food ever eaten. A woman who loved her mate from the first time they dated in high school and loved him until the day he died and after. A woman who gave birth to six girls and raised five of them to womanhood (second daughter died at three months of age).
A woman who loved her entire extended family and made sure she went "down home" often to keep up with all of them. I know I have written about her on this blog many times but I never tire of talking about her to anyone who will listen. The interesting thing iswe all feel that way about her and even her grandchildren talk about her often. Whose every son-in-law adored her and would do anything for her. After Daddy died, she would call my Dwight to help her with things around the house.  He worked for himself and would make himself available for anything she needed. She fell on some ice one day and she called him for help.  He almost killed himself getting to her and took her right to the Emergency Room.  He called me and I dropped everything at work and called my sisters on the way to the hospital.  Pretty soon they put all of us in a separate room - we were pretty fierce when it came to our Mama.  We knew that on the fourth Sunday in June, we were supposed to go "down home" with her for our "family reunion". I don't believe she ever missed a family reunion and she loved it when we could all be there. Of course, Barbara wasn't able to be there often so it was very special for her when they were able to come down during that time. These two were taken at one of the reunions held in Kittrell. Don't you just love those glasses she has on? They were the style at that time.  Pretty soon we were going to Aunt Eunice's house for the reunion in Wake Forest. She used to go to her old country church she had joined as a girl every so often and all our cousins talked about how pretty she always was.  We thought so too. Her beauty came from the inside out.  She was a good person and everyone was drawn to her. She totally enjoyed her job at Liggett and Myers and made many friends there. Her little recipe book is full of recipes she got from people she worked with.  They have her friend's names beside the recipes. I've been meaning to scan her handwritten recipes for a long time and am going to try very hard to do that this year. They are pretty faded so I'm not sure how they will turn out. You may see some of these pictures further back on my blog but that's okay. It does tell me I need to work on scanning more of the older pictures I have of her. We still haven't found Mama's pictures anywhere. I'm not sure where they are but I am very sad they are gone. It is hard to believe she would have turned ninety-six today if she had lived. One thing I do know - she would still be smiling and everyone who knows her would be smiling with her and loving her deeply. I miss you Mama - every day.