Warning: This entry may be off putting because it is not about the trip at all. I got to thinking, and next thing I knew, this entry had taken on a life of its own. Feel free to skip today.
Mothers' Day seems very different to me this year. It occurred to me that since my brother's death in October, there is no longer anyone who was loved and influenced by Mother as I was and who remembers her as I do. I expect, however, that no two people remember a person in exactly the same way, especially when one is a son and one a daughter and they are twelve years apart in age.
For the first fourteen years of my brother's life, Mother kept house in a house without electricity or water except for a pump on the back porch, so life was harder for her then. She also had more people to look after until the other men in the family married.
REA came through when I was two years old, so she had electricity. Thank you, Mr. Roosevelt. (always pronounced /oo/ in our house) I remember when we got real running water, but we didn't get an indoor bathroom until Bubba was in college. Mother and Daddy had a huge garden and canned or froze most of what we ate. I remember going to town to the frozen food locker to put in or take out food, and we went to Stony Creek to the school to can large batches of string beans and tomatoes and I suppose other things as well. We also canned at home. She also loved her flowers and had a huge garden of those as well. She called them her therapy.
Mother made just about everything I wore, often making skirts for me out of the good part of pants that were outgrown or worn out. I could never keep my "soul and body together", as she said, so she sewed buttons on my blouses and put a button hole in a little square of fabric that she sewed into the waist band of my skirts in an attempt to keep me neat. I think I was in school before she got an electric sewing machine. That had to be a blessing. She also taught me to sew, and while I don't that much anymore, it certainly did help in our early years. She also did embroidery, quilting and crochet. Her hands were never still.
I did not get my temper and impatience from my Mother. She was far too good natured. Del said he married me because he thought I would get more like my mother as I aged, but the joke was on him. The only time I know of when she got angry enough to tell someone what she thought was when I was in high school and attended a dance that was mentioned in the local newspaper. The minister, Mr. E., read about it, figured out that was why we missed revival that Saturday night and on Sunday morning, from the pulpit,scolded an unnamed person for putting dances ahead of attending church. Since I was mentioned by name in the paper, it was quite clear who he meant, and Miss Rosa did not take it well. She called upon Mr. E. after church that day, and while I don't know what was said, she seemed to feel better when she came out of his office.
Mother had several expressions that I remember fondly. She once said of someone who had a overly friendly, sort of oily personality that he was so slick you wouldn't have to grease his ears to swallow him. She also told me when I was going through my overly protective mother of frequently sick child phase (The phase lasted only 20 years or so.) that children needed love and watching over but they also needed some loving neglect, and mine wasn't getting any. I think she thought I spent too much time walking around behind David with a stethescope.
Occasionally she gave hints that were more or less subtle. She once saw me reading when I should have been working on something and said,"Reading can be a sin, you know." And after her handwork was displayed in the Senior Citizens case at the local library, she told me that maybe one day I could have a display of my half finished projects. It was beyond her understanding that a person could start another project before finishing the previous one.
Mother didn't get to finish high school, and, sadly, I don't think she ever realized how smart she was. She was also shy and not very confident around people she felt knew more and had more world experience than she did. People she thought knew how to do things right. She studied up on how things were done, so she could teach me, and I think that's why she and Daddy worked so hard to see that my brother and I had as many opportunities as possible.
I would be remiss (I've always wanted to say that), if I did not mention that I was also blessed in the mother in law department. When Del was in Vietnam and David was so sick, I could not have asked for anyone to be more supportive than she and Mr. Williams were. I really do not know if the 24 year old me would have made it without them. Mother was not able to do what she would have done because my daddy was in the process of dying from a heart condition and we didn't want him to know how sick David was. Plus, her hands were kind of full. It was such a relief to her to know that I was not having to do everything on my own.
Well, you read someone's blog, expecting travel news and all of a sudden they just tell you more than you ever wanted to know. Way too much information.
Moving on. We had a great Skype with the kids today. Rosa has only 13 more days of school, and they will be here in a month. Can't wait. She showed us her latest sewing project, a lined vest. Her teacher must really be good to have taught her so much in such a short time, and she must be a good student.
We also celebrated by taking the bus out to McDonalds. The coke was not as good as in Prague, but the yellow mustard was a treat!
I dressed for the occasion in a short sleeved t shirt and sandals and was perfectly comfortable. On the way back to the bus stop we saw a toddler dressed in bibbed ski pants, a thick sweat shirt and a hat. Most children don't pay much attention to us, but this baby kept running back toward us just grinning. His parents would get him going in the right direction and back he would come. My theory is that he saw how I was dressed and figured if he could get to me I would save him from heat exhaustion. Who knows what he had on under the layer we could see.
So, happy Mothers' Day, Moms, and to repeat what I said to my FB friends, to all those who provide mothering and guidance whether they are called aunt, older sister, teacher, friend, or sometimes even Daddy.
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