Photo Challenge: Mothers

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!

My mother left this world in 2001. I can't imagine how she must be getting along in heaven ... I hope they have General Hospital there. She was addicted. Also, I hope they have Nutter Butters, Fig Newtons, Baskin Robbins Pralines & Cream and Burger King Whoppers. Oh ... and she also loved instant Sanka decaf. Do they still even make it? (yuck!)

I've included a picture of the little "family segment" that I remember most. My siblings were so much older than me that, for most of my life, I was basically an only child. My dad preached at church on Sunday and we spent Sunday afternoons having lunch at someone's home and maybe then visiting various church members.

So, my Sundays were spent sitting quietly on people's formal living room couches. I've always loved this picture of us ... on a church member's couch after lunch, me with my favorite ballerina doll, my mom with a too-short dress and huge hair. (It was the 70s obviously.) In my eyes, she was really cool.

The other photo is of my mom in the 1940s with my oldest brother, Henry (Hank) when he was probably three years old in his "toddler version" World War II army uniform - just like dad's uniform at the time. Henry was named after my mother's brother, Henry J., who my mom really loved and who died in the early 1940s of an appendicitis in his early 20s. Henry J. went to college with my dad at Baylor and he was planning to be a pastor like my dad. We named our Hank after his Uncle Hank and his great uncle Henry J. (As coincidence would have it, I think that they all three kind of look alike.)

When I was in my early 20s, mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. She was in her early 60s. She went downhill very quickly at first and ended up in a nursing home. But after that, she maintained an existence for about ten years. When she finally died, she was only about 80 pounds.

The end of her life is not what I think about very often anymore. Most of the time, I remember how fun she was. She liked to cut up and laugh and act stupid. She dressed young - even though she was almost 40 years old when I was born ... she wore my clothes all the time.

She and I look a lot a like and I feel like I am becoming her in many ways ... but I will never like instant decaf Sanka! And she was way skinnier than me, too. She also had a habit of talking to herself - which I really try to not copy.

The "talking to herself" went something like, "Can you believe that my own daughter would treat another human being that way?" When I tried to defend myself, she would say, "Quit talking to me about that ... I wasn't talking to you ... No one understands how hard it is to keep this house clean when I ache all over or they would be helping me (talking to herself again) ... " :)

Oh, and one last trait that makes me smile and laugh ... she was always worried about some ache or pain. She thought she had brain cancer or some serious illness all the time ... although, for the majority of her life, she was completely healthy. I would try and convince her that dad wasn't hiding the diagnosis from her. (too much General Hospital, I guess) When she really did come down with something, she was too lost from reality to know it.

So many memories ... I wonder what my kids will be writing about me!! :) And, I hope they don't decide to post it on the Internet!

I posted Hank's gift to me ... a painting. The hand print is his, of course, and the heart inside the hand symbolizes me. I'm not his favorite, though. He'll be much more excited about Father's Day!