What I Remember About Mom

  

She loved her children and fully trusted in God, no matter the situation.

  

“Did you get enough to eat,” she would say, after each meal. I just thought she said it. I didn’t know why. With my sister (Peggy) married and making a family of her own. My two older brothers (Jim & Jack) both in the military, that just left mom & me. She didn’t draw much from dad’s pension (He died in 1960 when I was still in school) so mom worked as a lunchroom worker at a local elementary school. Needless to say we didn’t have much, but she keep me clothed & fed. She always made sure I had enough to eat and sometimes she took food off her plate and put it on mine. One time I saw her eating saltine crackers & milk later when she didn’t know I was watching.

And pray… she prayed about everything. Even the weather; she would pray for sunshine to dry the cloths on the line. Then pray for rain for the vegetables in the garden. She never forgot her children, even though they were gone from home and on their own, she always prayed for God to bless them and their families. She never forgot me (Sammy). I was right there by her side as we knelt by her bed; for me to be a good boy and that I might do well in school, and that I wouldn’t fight, would be kind to others. Oh, she didn’t miss anything. I felt I was the ‘apple of her yes’.

After I graduated high school, I wanted to go to college. No one in my family had ever gone to college before. I would be the first. She sat down with pencil and paper and went to figuring. “I don’t see how we can do it, but if God will help us and you really want to go, we’ll see what we can do”, she said. Well, come fall, I started college at ETSU just about 25 miles away from home. I was able to get a job at a funeral home that gave me a place to stay at night just a few miles away from the main campus.

The war in Viet Nam was going on in the early ‘60’s and I got real patriotic, delaying my college until after I served time in the US Air Force. Mom prayed every day for my safety, just like she had done for the other boys. I married and started a family before I left service, and mom would hold those grand babies and pray for them like she had for my sister and the boys.

Mom would sew little dresses for my three daughters and they looked so grand on Easter and their birthdays. I just know she prayed as she sewed. Mom prayed all the time, not just at mealtime or when we went to bed.

The girls grew as did their cousins and the kids all wanted to pray like mamaw showed them. It’s no wonder I grew up praying too.

Mom died in 1999, just 2 days after my birthday and 5 days before Mothers Day. If she’d made it to August 24^th of that year she would have been 92. There wasn’t a lot of tears at mom’s funeral. There was no doubt where would spend eternity. Her life was her testimony. She would be in heaven with the God she knew so well, the one she talked to while she worked, and sewed. Mom was a Proverbs 31 kind of lady. She didn’t wear her faith on her sleeve. She lived it in her heart and believed it when she prayed.

The other day as I looked into the sky, I just prayed “Lord, if you’ve a mind to, we need some rain”…, and you know – it did.

 

 

  

 

 

A Tribute to Mom

More often than not when we realized the full extent of our mother’s strivings and sacrifices on our behalf, we find it’s too late to say “thank you,” or “you were right, mom”, because she has passed on out of the picture of our present lives and surroundings.

One statement voiced by both my parents was “one day you’ll understand…”

I got to the point where I could mouth it as they were saying it. It was one of those ‘parent/son’ moments. I had been caught doing something I shouldn’t have been doing, or was about to. You remember, you felt that strong hand on your shoulder or worse that sharp pain, usually were you sat down. Most children growing up in the 50’s & 60’s know just what I mean. Times were tough for we ‘youngsters’ wanting to establish ourselves at such early ages.

My dad had died when I was seventeen. My sister was married and my two older brothers were in the military. It was just mom and me. I grew very close to my her during those hard times. She prayed a lot, not just for me, but even those that had moved on with their lives, my sister and my brothers. She would deny herself many times so I would have. We worked and grew together. I learn to sew a torn shirt, to replace a button. She even showed me how to crochet, the whole time instilling in me a deep faith and appreciation for things that I couldn’t see then, but someday would…

A few years later I finished high school and wanted to go to college. Something no one else in the family had done. It would be hard on the small pension she drew after dad died and the small income she drew from her lunchroom helper job at a local elementary school. We had another parent/son talk and I was told, “I don’t know how we’ll do it, maybe God will provide…”

Even though times were hard and I remember mom counting out change to pay bills, somehow we got through. We ate a lot of ‘beans & baloney’. Mom would say she wasn’t hungry sometimes so I would have more to eat. Later I saw her eating crackers & milk.

I didn’t leave home until I was twenty-four, joined the US Air Force and was finally on my own…, but not really. Even though I married and started a family, I still saw a need to look after mom; she was getting up in age. I would go to her house and mow or do odd jobs just to check her.

Her children were her life. She never ceased to pray for us even though we still messed up at times. We could always count on mom.

In 1999, two days after my 56th birthday and five days before Mother’s Day. Mom died. Just a few months before her 92 nd birthday. She had a beautiful funeral, many flowers, friends and family. No one worried about mom any more. Her life was her testimony. Her God and her children were the most important things in her life. She had succeeded to the best of her ability. Her family was grown and finally on their own.

Thanks again mom, for all you did for us; and yes, I think we finally understand.

Signed:
The children
Peggy, Jimmy, Jack & Sammy

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!