Remembering My Mom

I discovered while getting ready for the electrician coming that I have my mom's journals. They were under the bed that I moved back there in the back room.

I just read something that made me smile.

1952 Sept. 30 mom said:

Jean is practicing piano and acting 'impish'.... One sentence later she said

Just gave Jean a good spanking - she's still spouting off. She should have given me the kind of spanking that was more memorable. Mom would give 3 or 4 swats and that was it. (A mere irritant for me and apparently a waste of energy for her.)

Anyway, poor mom. She had her hands full

October 1st she wrote:

We wrote a letter to Joyce - Jean and I. I was 8.

So far, I've read how lonely mom was in the evenings, how hard she worked and felt as if she had trouble accomplishing anything since she had to clean the church too as well as the house.

A wringer washing machine - clothes lines instead of a dryer, no dish washer - so dishes would pile up while she cleaned the church. Hard work, loneliness, aching, tired body and concern over unpaid bills seemed to be her lot in life... yet her journal is sprinkled with prayers for her children as well as strength for herself.

Out of her five kids you might get diverse opinions on her job as a mother. I think she was a great mom. Loving, self sacrificing, jumping in when she saw that one of us needed help - without stopping to think of what it would mean for herself. If she would have liked gratitude she was probably, too often, disappointed. If she didn't do anything else she showed us what love looked like - in action .... often putting too much on her plate of service to others. She was fiercely loyal - sometimes to the point of being blindly so. The good thing was that she made sure we had spiritual training - so - if she stood up for us when we needed correcting we could still figure out when we were wrong.

I love you mom.... and miss you.