Mama

Today is Mother's Day. I always miss my mom a little more on days like today. I was truly blessed to have a remarkable woman as my mother.In the late 40's my mom was a busy lady. She had 3 children, a job, and a husband who tended to drink too much after work so she had most of the everyday stuff to do by herself. Then somewhere around 1950, she had  trouble with her back and ended up having to have back surgery. Because of a doctor who was incompetent due to abuse of drugs and alcohol, she was paralyzed from the waist down. Now she had to deal with that plus try to continue to take care of her family. To complicate matters even further, in the early summer of 1951, here came one more little problem in the form of a 4 lb. baby named Ann Marie.(Me)
According to what I have been told, my oldest brother took care of Mom and of me quite a bit then. I have also been told through the years that many of the ladies in our community would come and help take care of me. One lady told me years later that I was the "community baby".But as time went on the care of her children once again became my mom's responsibility. She went from being confined to the bed  then to a wheelchair. Then she went to braces and a cane and eventually to just her braces.When I was little, I would ride on her lap. I used to claim that this was the reason I loved to ride in cars and later drive because I spent my first few years on wheels.
Mama cooked, cleaned, worked in her flowers, and did all the things other mamas did. Sometimes she would fall (pretty much like a tree) but she would get up with a little help and go right back to what she was doing. I remember once when she and I was walking from my grandmother's back home and she fell on the highway. She drug herself off to the side of the road losing a lot of skin as she went and I ran for help to get her up.My mom painted the rooms in our house, she really did anything she set her mind to do.
With all of the things that went on, our home was a happy home most of the time. There was a lot of love in that house because of my mom. There was music and laughter. Mom made sure we all developed a love of reading. Of all the lessons I learned from my mom, the ones that stick with me the most are these. Love with all your heart, never give up, and always remember God is with you all the time.

Gone Fishing!

When I was very young, one of my favorite pasttimes was going fishing. My daddy was my first fishing buddy. He would take me fishing at some of the ponds around the area and also in the creek behind our house and Deep River .  My dad taught me how to bait a hook and how to remove the fish from the hook once I had caught one. He also taught me how to  clean the fish that I caught. Those were some of my favorite times spent with my dad. But of course, not all of those trips were as safe as they should have been. I can remember one time in particular when Daddy took me fishing off the banks of the river.  He brought his 'refreshments" with him and while I fished, he drank and then took a nap under a tree. I fished for a few hours and even fell into the water .I was dry by the time he woke up and then we went home. I look back on it now and thank God that he kept me safe but back then I thought it was fun. But even then at around 8 years old or so, I had enough sense Not to tell Mama what happened. She would have thrown a fit.

Daddy used to tell me stories about things he did when he was a boy while we fished. Those are some of my favorite times with my dad. As I got older, these times became fewer because he spent more and more of his "off work" time drinking  so each one of our fishing trips are treasured memories.