Mom

Mom

What can I say! She is a special lady. She's 86 and tough - raised 11 kids (did a darn good job), while Dad was gone a lot earning a living for all of us as a truck driver.

We conspired behind her back for her 77th birthday. We threw her a surprise birthday party. She had mentioned one day while talking about birthday parties, she had never had one. Emails flew back and forth for several months planning the event.

My HD and I took her shopping and out for lunch while the house was being decorated and the caterer set up. Everyone parked on the side street so she would not see all the cars. When she opened the door and the house was full of people yelling "Surprise", she was shocked and asked "Where did you all come from?". One of my sisters told her "Most of us from you!". We had a great time with her surprise. At that time there were sixty-six in the family.

Now she has five sons-in-law, three daughters-in-law, nineteen grandchildren,  twenty-seven ?? ( I lost count) great grandchildren and three great great grandchildren.

 She took care of Dad until we lost him to cancer, she went  through back surgery, breast cancer and is dealing with glacoma and diabetes and doing great. I told you, she's TOUGH!

I remember the story of how she met Dad. She was doing housework for one of Dad's aunts and was bent over using a vacuum cleaner, while he sat in a chair. He showed her she didn't have to bend over to use it. Dad was 29 and she was 17 when they married.

Both Mom and Dad had large families of 10 children. Mom was from the city and Dad from the country. After they married and Dad was in the service, Mom went to live on the ranch with Dad's family.

Another story she tells is about  the shopping list. The ranch was 60 miles from town, so a monthly list was prepared by all, then Grandpa decided what was really needed. Mom always put fresh fruit on the list and he always marked it off, saying they didn't need that.

Wish I could get her to put down on paper many of the memories from then and her early years in St. Louis. They would make a great gift for all of us kids to read and treasure.

I love you, Mom.

Happy Mothers Day to Mom, Sheri, Rosario and Lili (the new Mom) and all the Moms out there !