Born: December 14, 1917

Died: October 29, 1975

Children: Three Girls

There are so many "Precious Memories" I recall about my mother. She was a fun-loving, full of life lady who was so much fun to be around. My mother loved everyone and everyone loved her. There is a saying, I believe by Will Rogers, "I never met a man I didn't like". Well, my mother never met a person she didn't like or who didn't like her.

My mother was a young girl 16 years of age when she and my daddy married. They were married 44 years when she died at the young age of 57 years with cancer of the spine. She had surgery for a malignant tumor, which was wrapped around her spinal cord. The surgery and radiation she took caused her to be paralyzed from the waist down. My mother lived one year after she was diagnosed and treated with radiation. I will always feel she willed herself to die. She simply gave up when she could no longer be the vibrant and vigorous woman she had always been. She died just two days short of mine and my twin sister's birthday and was buried on our birthday.

My mother was so young when she married and the youngest child of three girls in her family. She had no idea how to keep house, much less sew, etc. But, she learned it all. She was a good housekeeper when she had time and was not at a routine daily job. She was a wonderful seamstress and made all her girls clothes. She also became a good cook and could "throw together a meal out of almost anything", a trait I to this day, have not learned.

My mother used to tell the story about her first girls, twins. She said, "I would put one on one hip and one on the other hip, I walked them and they cried and I cried". Can you imagine a 20 year old with twins and, at that time did not know she was having more than one baby when we were born? When my youngest sister was born, she did not ask what so many of us do, "is it a boy or girl?" She simply wanted to know how many babies there were. My mother was a good woman and always made sure her children were raised in the church. My youngest sister is like my mother in every way I can think of.

Unfortunately, I was not with my mother the minute she died. She was in a Nursing Home the last six weeks of her life and she was rushed to the hospital around 11:00 P.M. on October 29, 1975 and was D.O.A. All of her girls, Daddy and her sisters had visited her the week she died, some coming almost 150 miles to see her.

She is buried in the family plot and now my Daddy lies by her side. "May the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace, and may light perpetual shine upon them". Rest in peace my sweet mother. Time heals all wounds, but you will always remain loved and in my heart. I don't think you ever totally get over the loss of a parent. Time just helps the hurt.