The Greatest Mom in the World...GEEZ Was I Lucky!

Okay...go ahead and laugh about how geeky I was but this is my favorite picture of my mother and me. (It's at the bottom of the blog) Go ahead and click on the photo so you can see all the bruises on my skinny little arms and the braces glaring out of my mouth.

My mother reupholstered the couch we are sitting on, made the ceramic bowl above our heads and sewed all of the clothes she is wearing. The picture behind us now hangs over my bed and I still have the end table beside us in this photo.

The other two pictures show what a beauty my mom was in her prime (before us three kids broke her down completely.) My dad was a cute little guy too!

Growing up I was one of the luckiest kids in the world. EVERY ONE loved hanging out at our house...young kids and adults as well. We bought fresh eggs from the "Egg Man" Frank Reeves. His son is now on the H&G channel...Walter Reeves. Frank Reeves would deliver our eggs and sit in our kitchen for an hour just talking to my mother.

The man who owned the local Gulf station was a crusty old man, Herman Jeans. He would come over to our house and literally sit for hours talking in our kitchen to my mother. Gulf stations used to give away free dishes with a fill up but Herman filled my mother's cabinets with full place settings. I still have the white octagon shaped dishes out in a box in my garage.

One of my father's closest childhood friends came by a couple of times a week to sit in the kitchen with my mother while she cooked cleaned or just sat smoking Kool Milds with her while they gossiped like two old women for hours sipping iced tea.

My brother's friends ADORED my mother...all his buddies took their turns hanging out with her in our kitchen, scrounging food off her or laughing when she would pin my brother down on the floor. He always said "I wasn't ready!" and she would wipe her brow...ask if he was ready now and pin him down in under ten seconds. She was a strong woman...physically mentally and emotionally.

She always had a glass of iced tea she was sipping stuck in one of those old fashioned Styrofoam coozies.

My sister's friends were always at our house as well. Mama sewed all the majorette uniforms when Cindy was in high school and on the majorette squad. She could sew a potato sack into a night gown and made all my sister's many, many prom dresses and homecoming dresses.

I was nice to her and never got invited to a prom so she only had to make my sister's!

My sister's high school sweetheart was a Golden Gloves boxer and my mother made his boxing trunks and robe.

When I finally got over the "Geeky" and landed on the cheer leading squad of my middle school my mother sewed all the uniforms for us.

My dad was crazy about my mom just like everyone else was. Diddy (as we always called him) didn't smoke whereas Mama smoked like a house fire. He smoked when he was younger but said when us kids were born that we were too expensive for vices.

I remember one time he came home late from work and Mama didn't have any dinner left. She told him he'd have to make a sandwich. He looked in the bread box and said "We're out of bread." She told him to run up to the Majik Market and pick up a loaf. He said "We never seem to run out of cigarettes." She didn't miss a beat and said calmly "If I smoked bread we'd never run of of bread."

What a life! We were raised in East Point Christian Church and were there every time the doors were open. My parents were married in that church and my sister, brother and I were raised there. Many great memories of EPCC ...all night New Years Eve parties, progressive dinners, youth retreats to Woodland Christian camp(with my parents and their crazy friends as the cooks) and just all round a wonderful time and place to grow up.

Nothing lasts forever and three days before my senior year of high school started my mother dropped dead on the floor of a clothing store while she was out shopping with my sister and me. She was gone in under thirty seconds.

My brother likes to point out that our family seems to take the "Express Lane" when checking out and in my mind that is a good thing. No lingering illness or years of draining finances and emotion...when we're ready to go it's "See Ya Upstairs!"

When my mother died so suddenly it was hands down the most difficult time of my life. I was too young to comprehend that she went in a quick way and that was best for her. I was more like "What about ME?"

It probably took me ten years before I got over just the shock of losing her. I still grapple with it especially now that my kids are growing up without knowing this truly wonderful woman.

Oh they know all the stories, I have all the pictures... but for them to not be able to hug my mother or let her spoil them silly breaks my heart.

I was blessed to have wonderful parents..I was blessed that neither of them suffered long before going to reap their justified reward in Heaven.

I am left with memories and I am left with the examples and qualities they instilled in me. I hope I am a good mom...I try to be.

So many children grow up with no guidance or direction. I grew up with TONS of it. I faltered miserably at times and made many mistakes but am the woman and mother I am today because of my parents.

They are together again this Mother's Day...upstairs enjoying being reunited and still coming to me in my dreams at night. They still guide and inspire me to always try and do the right thing.

Happy Mother's Day to all you women out there. I hope that you all have a mother that you love or a mother that inspired you as much my own did.

To have a child grow inside of you and grow up beside you is an incredible and wonderful feeling.

At the tender age of fifty..."I finally GET it."

I miss my mother every day of my life. I miss the fact that she is not here to pin Zach on the kitchen floor in front of his friends or sew Massey's uniforms . I miss that my kids can't know this wonderful woman personally or fill up her tea glass. They didn't know her personally but they all know her privately and intimately through years of us keeping her alive in our heart and soul.

I hope you have a GREAT Mother's Day, Mama! Know you are missed tremendously and that we are all waiting for the day we will meet again .

Geez...I was a lucky little girl, even with the braces and bruises.

Til next time...COTTON