A Tribute

In the past weeks, I have heard from many of you - Thank You for your caring and your support. I have relearned how important mom was to so many people. Mom's clothes have now been given to a charity and in the coming weeks and months, her earthly possessions and her beloved home will be sold, but the lives she touched will forever be blessed because she was here.

These are just a few of the memories I hold dear.

The radio is now unplugged. But, when I was young, the local radio station played old time music late every afternoon just as mom was preparing supper. As supper cooked, she and I danced to that music right there by the stove in that very small kitchen. Cooking is a joy to be shared. For as long as I can remember, there has been a teapot sitting on the stove. I remember sharing conversation about the happenings in our family over a cup of tea and recently I would send different teas home to mom. There is something soothing about a cup of tea at the end of a day.

All five of us had supper together each night around the kitchen table - how we all fit, I have no idea. In recent years, mom and I shared simple meals and lots of conversation sitting by this table. Always, we prayed before we ate.

The watering can won't be used anymore. I can't ever remember a time when there weren't plants flourishing inside and outside my family home. It seems like nourishing growing things was a specialty of mom and under her care the plants became strong and mature... us kids, too.
Mom loved beautiful things, not expensive things but things she thought were beautiful. Home didn't change much over the years; when she found something she liked, it stayed with her. I used to love playing at her dresser when I was little, very little make-up there but always beautiful things. It doesn't take make-up to be beautiful.

Mom found it hard to hold a book, in recent years, because of those darn arthritic fingers but I remember a few years back when she went through some of my old things and read every book I had in my teenage collection. And I remember when I was learning to read and would take a book and a flashlight to bed each night; she knew but she never said a thing. Mom encouraged learning.

By the time I had graduated high school, my parents had taken me to 39 states. And mom never did learn to read a map! I remember our first visit to California when I was about 10. After a few miles of 8-lane highways, dad threw the map in the back seat and said "Get us the hell out of here." Just because mom never learned to read maps didn't mean that she didn't enjoy travel. Since we have been on the road, many conversations have started with "So where are you now?" And she loved getting my postcards and she loved remembering when she and dad had visited a place. Traveling is good.

It has been several years since mom climbed the upstairs steps, but recently they became another place to store things. You just never knew what you would find sitting in the steps. Now, the staircase is empty. And if there is a staircase to heaven, mom has climbed it.

I was so blessed to have mom for 60 years... now I just need to remember all she taught me.