Knowing Mom...

The following post was acutally written in June of 2010, but I thought it would be extremely effective to help you get to know my mom if you didn't already.

Today’s date: June 4, 2010. One day before my parents will celebrate their 59^th wedding anniversary. Such a rarity these days to see two people as much in love now as they were then. I say as much in love, but yet it is a different type of love. Their love is so real; the way they care for each other, the way my mom looks to my dad for reassurance, for him to fill in the blanks when her memory fails her for a name, a date or a place. The way he helps her in the kitchen, buys groceries and has even learned to make a cake or yeast bread from scratch. Together they work through the daily tasks of life at 80 young years-of-age. One’s memory is failing and the other’s heart is breaking as he watches the love of his life slowly start to slip away. My mother has Alzheimers.

  

When my Dad and Mom were 38 and 39 respectively, and in early 1969, they learned that they would be expecting their fifth child. At the time they had 3 living daughters; Sue 15, Deb 13, and Jean 9. There had been one other daughter born between Deb and Jean. She had been quite premature and died shortly after birth. Her name was Joyce. You can imagine the shock when they learned that one more was on the way and on September 8, 1969, Elizabeth (Beth) Ann was born. Elizabeth for my grandmother who had passed away just 10 days prior and Ann for my other grandmother who had passed when my mother was 11. My dad always said that they could have had 10 kids and they would all have been girls. Some would have considered him cursed to be a farmer with all daughters, but he never considered it to be. Many people thought they would be upset about my impending arrival, but he always said, "We didn’t plan her, but we plan to love her."

My dad had a moderate sized farm and my mother was a homemaker and volunteer extrordinaire. She had a fruit and vegetable garden that was at least two acres in size. There was a strawberry patch that yielded at least 150 quarts of berries every year. There were potatoes which were always planted on Good Friday, peas, beans, sweet corn, pumpkins, cucumbers for eating and pickling, radishes, onions, lettuce, tomatoes and an entire row of fruit trees; cherries, apples, peaches, apricots and all of these delectable morsels were canned, frozen or otherwise eaten. Oh, and one cannot forget the beautiful roses that my mother grew. The entire house would be filled with one bud vase after the other with the beautiful, fragrant flowers.

If all that wasn’t enough there were acres of grass to be mowed, house to clean, fence to paint, and meals to cook; three squares a day plus morning and afternoon "lunch", as it was called. Cakes, cookies, bread, melt-in-your mouth pastries, and everything baked from scratch and with butter. Of course, laundry, ironing, visiting the sick or elderly relatives, family gatherings, spear-heading our 4-H club for as many years as I can remember, sewing, quilting…well, I think you get the picture. This lady could, without a doubt get more done by 9 o’clock in the morning than most people could accomplish all day; perhaps even in a week. She ran on coffee, leftovers, a good attitude, and a very long "to-do" list.  She was Superwoman to me!