My Mother

Tomorrow is Mother's Day. I thought about my mom today. She has been gone about 14 years now. Sometimes I can't remember very much about her. She worked most of the time I lived at home and was always tired when she got home. We didn't have much quality time together like I have had with my kids.
She must have had a really hard life because I don't remember her laughing much. Maybe it's because I moved to Ohio when I was 18. I only got to spend time with her when we went home for a visit and we had to share the time with Tom's parents.
I remember some things that will always be special though. She would sing this silly song that I have never, ever heard anyone else sing. It was called "The Tune The Old Cow Died On". And when we took her on vacation with us, and anytime we drove by a stand of pines, she would sing "In the Pines". She didn't sing very well, but she liked to try.
She got Tom's brother Dennis to drive her up to Shelby when I had Becky. They drove during the late night hours, through a heavy fog, and only stayed for a couple of hours before they went back home. I don't know for sure, but I imagine she had to work that day.
When Heather was born, and I called and told her the name we had picked out she said in a shocked voice," Heathen". I think she was making a joke but she never corrected it. It was funny to me.
We took a vacation when my sister April got married and moved to Oregon, and took her with us. We drove and took 3 weeks for this vacation. We saw lots of things and had many things that made wonderful memories on that trip. Mom was a smoker, which we all hated, but on our way back home, we stopped at a campground to spent the night. (We had bought a van for the trip,(our first van) that had been converted so that it could be used for a camper) The girls were so excited to be 'camping out'. The mosquito's were so bad that we couldn't sleep or even rest. The only time we had any peace from them was when mom was smoking. We would sit near the smoke and the mosquito's stayed away. Tom finally got up and said," I can't sleep so get in this van, we're going home."
We took her to Virginia with us the next year and that was another fiasco, but it's too long to blog about now. More memories.
Her favorite meal was bacon and eggs, even at 7 o'clock at night. Every time we went home she would lay out liver to thaw so she could fix us some for a meal. My family would not eat liver. I don't know why she couldn't remember that.
She had 3 son-in-laws named Tom. Two of them had last names that started with a "B" so she gave them numbers. my Tom was either "Tom Brown" or "Tom number one".
I gave her money several times and I think one of them she either couldn't or took a long time to repay so she insisted that I have her "red Avon glass" so I would be sure to get my money back.
Now that I started writing about her, I guess I remember lots of things. Wish we could have spent more time together and talked about her life. I miss her a lot, especially on special days like "Mother's Day". I'm glad she was my mother.

Have a Happy Mother's Day Mom, I Love You
Your daughter, Brenda