Hey Webmasters! Get a free website with holiday themes - Get it NOW!
|
|
|
They don't make 'em any better than my late mom, Izzy. She was born in 1922, joining a family of 11 brothers and sisters on a Kansas farm. It was a hard and frugal life. Grandma grew and canned most of the food, did her own baking, and Grandpa doled out the firm discipline of the woodshed when the children failed to toe the line at the one-room school or in doing their chores.
She spent her teenage years working as a household helper to a sick woman, and was waitressing when she met and married my dad, who spent the WWII times driving a taxicab. Later she worked making ammunition at the Sunflower plant in Kansas during the war.
Mama wasn't a fancy lady. She had dirt under her nails from her gardens more often than not, but when she cleaned up she was awfully pretty. I remember when daddy would have holiday parties for his plumber's union, mama would put on her pretty turquoise suit and her pearls and for hours the bathroom would smell like AquaNet and Shower to Shower. They didn't go out often - they didn't believe on dumping their only kid on a babysitter - so it was a big deal when they did.
Some of my earliest memories of my mom involved smells - the smell of a hot iron sizzling on freshly misted pillowcases; hot tomatoes just out of the canner; her favorite cucumbers with vinegar; her best dinner of steak, mashed potatoes and gravy and biscuits; the stinky fish we'd catch together.
She never met a molecule of dirt she couldn't conquer. She worshipped her Kirby vacuum cleaner and actually knew how to work the multitude of attachments.
Mom loved to sew and crochet. She passed that on to me as soon as I showed an interest, skills I still enjoy today. I treasure the piles of crocheted doilies, hand embroidered dresser scarves and pillowcases, the legacy of her scarce leisure time.
After many years of waiting, mom finally found her ultimate role as Grandma to my son John and daughter Cari. After being widowed, she ran a small daycare out of her home. When my son was born, she closed her business and sold her home, moving in with us to take care of our child rather than see him go to daycare!
In 1995, when my kids were just 9 and 7, mom died suddenly in the middle of the night from a massive heart attack. Due to various strange happenings in the years afterward, I have reason to believe she passed at 1:15 a.m. - (but that's another Pearl!) She left a void in our lives that cannot be filled, and some shoes that are way too big to fill!
I just thought someone should know.
bravenet.com