5-19-03

"You requested information about my Mother. My goodness, where do I BEGIN! She was my best friend, and truly I don't ever remember having an argument or disagreement with her, although the passage of time usually smoothes life's little bumps. She was born in Wash state in 1898, and I think the reason that I admired you Grandmother, Helen, so much, was that the two of them shared the same birthday, October 23. Mother was the third of four daughters. From an early age she was very musical, although she couldn't read a note of music. If she could hum a tune, then she could play it on the piano. Once or twice I saw her pick up a ukelele and play it wonderfully. Unfortunately, neither Jack, my brother, or I inherited that talent. My one regret was Mother never learned to sew; she could embroider lovely items, but all of my home made dresses, dance costumes, etc. had to be "farmed out", but I guess it was the incentive for me to learn to sew. When I look back at the time right after World War 2, and we returned home, housing was impossible, so Jack, his wife, and baby all moved in with Mother and Dad, and Walter and I did too, while we waited for our houses to be built. I was pregnant with the twins, and eventually we had three babies, in diapers, in the house. Mother stayed in the kitchen all the time preparing three meals a day, Lalie stayed in the garage running the washing machine, and I stayed in the bedroom taking care of babies. Since building materials were scarce, it took about a year and a half to get the two little houses completed, so we could move out of the folks' house. That was a long line of meals for Mother to prepare, but she never complained. For many years, when Dad was struggling to keep the meat market in business, he would bring all of the white aprons and coats home for Mother to wash and iron. That was before she had a washing machine, so she scrubbed them by hand, which was quite a feat getting dried blood out. I don't know how she did it.
Another thing I remember about Mother was that she never learned to drive. She walked everywhere, even to town, which was several miles one way. It was nice to be able to be her chauffeur after we came home. In later years when Mother became a widow, I made it a point to go over to take her anywhere she needed to go every other day. My saddest day was the morning I drove in the driveway and noticed her drapes were still drawn, knowing I had terrible news ahead. Went to a neighbor's house to phone Walter to come and break into the house. He came immediately and we found Mother had passed away during the night. She had been feeling a little ill for a few days, but I could tell she had done Monday wash that day, and I had talked to her twice during the day and she reported feeling a bit better. Not a day goes by that I don't think about her, and feel so fortunate that I had such a great time growing up in a happy household, a lot due to a Mother who thought I was just short of being perfect. "