Happy Birthday Mom

Happy Birthday Mom

This is my favorite picture of my mom. She had it taken as a surprise for my dad while he was off serving his country in WW2. I found it in a drawer one day and asked if I could have it.

She thought it was a silly picture and it looked strange because of the light shining in the background. "Who ever goes around with a light shining on them."

Today would have been her 94th birthday.

My mother loved to play cards. She had a group of women who played pinochle or poker together almost every week. She was a diehard when it came to cards. She was all business when she played. The grandkids laugh whenever they get together because if they were talking and fooling around instead of paying attention to whose turn it was she would walk away from the table and say "Let me know when you are ready to play."

One afternoon the card ladies were at mom's house and our chimney caught on fire. When the fire department got to the house, the ladies put down their cards and went outside. When the firemen told them the fire was out, they went in and resumed the hand. Our pastor loved that story and told it at mom's funeral.

Mom was a great cook, a terrible house keeper (even though she did that for a living before she had kids). Our home was cluttered not dirty. She loved to iron. One of my fondest memories as a small child, was putting up my little ironing board next to hers. She always gave me my dads handkerchieves to iron. I would put my toy iron up to her and say "More Hot Please" and we would touch our irons together and then I would press the handkerchief and fold it. The memory is vivid. Once I got in high school her ironing load doubled because of me . I would try something on and instead of hanging it up, it went on the bed and eventually into the dirty clothes pile. Finally my mother caught on and she began making me iron my own clothes. When I didn't get it done, she would bag up the clothes and put them in the freezer. When I wanted a blouse I would go out and get it. For you young uns, this was before the days of perma press and I'm pretty sure before the days of the steam iron. We had to sprinkle our clothes to get the wrinkles out. We had this little contraption that looked like a the thing with holes on a watering can. We would put the contraption on a bottle of water and sprinkle away. Wow does that age me!

When mom couldn't get around to go to the beauty shop anymore, I became her Saturday beautician. Some times I resented having to take the time out of my busy schedule. I'd give anything to be spending my Saturdays curling her hair now.

I miss you Mom. Happy Birthday.