Today would have been

our Mama’s 81st birthday…

Wow.

I'm re-posting this post from last year ---
Just to share and reminisce a bit....

Maybe some things you know, or didn’t know – or have forgotten…
Just for us - you can skip, if you want...

Mama was #8 of ten girls

[bless her mama's and daddy’s hearts…]

She had a niece that is the same age as her…
thus, I have second cousins my age...

She was a junior high cheerleader,
in the homecoming court,

and salutatorian of her Senior Class

[She was the only one of the girls to graduate from high school…]

She grew up in the country and picked cotton to earn spending money…

They would ride in the back of a truck to go the North Alabama Fair each year…

Mama worked as a telephone operator before meeting and marrying our father…

She was blessed to be home with us…
She enjoyed creating beautifully wrapped gifts,
and loved setting a pretty table...

She also loved to talk on the phone...
[but I'm sure we ALL knew that - ]

She canned everything from jelly, to tomatoes, to beans,
apples, peaches, and peas
-- for us to eat all winter long…

And she made the best biscuits and blackberry jam I’ve ever eaten.

She enjoyed gardening and cooking fresh veggies,
Southern Style – fried or with lots of bacon. Yum.

She loved having flowers in her yard and in her home.

Mama miscarried a couple of years after I was born and

her life was complete when she finally had her baby boy 10 years later…
[This photo is not 'shopped' - it's soc
with slide film from one of our dad's old cameras -]

She was terrified of storms and we somehow [ha] always ended up
out at my gr-mother’s house [and in her storm cellar]

whenever a storm was brewing- lol.

She played softball at Robbins’ Field when we were kids –

And apparently wasn’t afraid to swing from the rafters on occasion – ha.

She loved to read and could easily devour a few 400 page books a week –

Some of my earliest memories are of our weekly trips to the library in Sheffield…
Tough Enough was one of my favorite series...

She also loved studying her Bible

and reading commentaries for theological insights

[I think she owned at least two different sets – of the BIG ONES – ha.]

She had the [spiritual] gift of teaching

and taught Sunday School most of her life –

She so enjoyed seeing her Sunday School members grow in the Lord…

She wasn’t perfect – but was perfectly forgiven, and

taught us that this forgiveness was available to all of us as well.

She loved butter pecan ice cream, or was it peach?
Or strawberry? Ha.

She also loved visiting and taking little gifties to ‘her shut-ins’ [as she called them]

and I really believe that’s where my love for the elderly and disabled first started…

I can remember weekly visits to Ms. Gas’ house

and also to people in nursing homes when I was a kid…
She loved her grandsons --

Oh how she loved them -

and was generous to the point of Lorna and I having to

tell them that they couldn’t give them money
every time they walked in the door – lol.
She was an excellent seamstress too -
and made us many, many beautiful outfits -
and fun things like ET, bugs bunny, clowns,
and ninja turtle outfits for Halloween costumes...