Sunday, May 11, 2014

Happy Mother's Day

My mom was one tough cookie!

She managed to survive an early life of abuse with an alcoholic father and a mother that required her constant attention and care. My mom's job at a young age was to care for the sick and elderly in a nursing home.

Mom married young and ended up being the main bread winner of the family when my dad caught a really bad case of polio and spent time in an iron lung. He wasn't able to work after that so she worked at a grocery store and managed to take care of her two daughters (I wasn't born yet.)

Once he was better (and I had arrived) she did the unthinkable for a woman of that era and got a divorce, moved away with three young girls, and settled us with my grandmother and her new husband. My mom had to work full-time as a grocery clerk to pay my grandparents to let us live with them.

A good man came into her life and married her along with her three daughters, but her life was never easy. She was a hard woman to get along with and would argue about everything. Seriously, there was no subject that didn't rile her up and get her going. Politics and religion were dangerous things to talk about around her. 

To say our relationship was rocky is a huge understatement.
But...
because of her I learned to:

be independent

not expect someone to take care of me

work hard

sew and quilt

bake and decorate cakes

do service for others

never be selfish and share with others

love genealogy and my family's heritage

She's been gone several years and I miss being able to ask her "how to" from her wealth of knowledge. 

She was such a smart woman! 

Thanks, Mom, for teaching me so many things...good and bad.

Happy Mother's Day!

11 comments:

  1. The stories I have read on blogs today are of women who have had tough times in their lives but made us stronger. My Mother worked so hard in my business years ago and I don't know if I appreciated her enough. I think of her each day and miss her terribly.

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  2. Lovely write up on your mom! Thanks for sharing.

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  3. Your mom had to be tough going what she had gone through as a child and as an adult. Hope you are having a lovely Mother's Day of your own Carol.

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  4. I have a similar background as your mom, and my husband's mom doesn't have it easy either, I sure hope my kids will see me as a much better mom than them..... I'm not blaming her/them.....

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  5. Your mom sounds like she was a great woman! I enjoyed reading your story. :) -Brittany

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  6. Nice to hear about your Mom. She did her very best to take care of her children under rough circumstances. My relationship wasn't great with my Mom either and it wasn't until I was older that I saw that we didn't get along because we were so much alike! I never had the chance to tell her that, but I definitely got to tell her how much I loved her before she died. :)

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  7. Happy Mother's Day to you. You have turned into a lovely, wonderful lady. Thank you for sharing. I think we all miss our Mothers and the wonderful things they had to share. I know I do. Hope you are having a wonderful day.

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  8. What a great post about your mom. While our mother's are not what the media portrays them as June Cleaver, they made us who we are.

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  9. Sounds like your Mother had to be tough at a young age. One thing I'm sure of....She managed to raise at least one very caring, pleasant and honorable daughter. I hope your Mother's Day was as special as you !

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  10. Touching. Thanks for sharing her story. Perhaps all women of her time had many hills to climb and they did. It made them stronger.

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  11. carol this is such an inspiring way to look at your life, and hers x

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