Happiest of Birthdays, sweet Momma (and Tato)

Today is my mom's birthday and I miss her sorely, although I know that she is so super happy with Jesus now. My mother always made me feel loved and she was always there for me. She had me later in life and I never did get a brother or sister, just my dog Spot and I tried out the "calling him my brother thing" and she said no way, Jose' (pretty impressive since she didn't speak any Spanish, eh?), but the fact that she got this puppy for me was awesome in itself because we lived in an apartment complex and my "bedroom" was really the dining room (2 doorways, no doors). Which means that Spot (she thought that name was lame but that's what happens when you allow an eight year old free rein to name the dog...later I even decided on a better name, but apparently momma thought it was like naming a child and he was stuck with the lame name...have you noticed that I like the lame name rhyme?) had to be walked in the city of Chicago at least twice a day.



Gosh, I could do a whole post on Spot and the many neat tricks my mom so patiently taught him, but he could not find his way out of a wet paper bag (although one of the times we picked him up from the pound he LOOKED like he had been in several wet paper bags...it seems the dogs would get sprayed down with this gacky yellow-brown mixture to kill bugs and see just how much the owners really wanted them back. Did I mention that he smelled like he had a swim in a polluted, overgrown with algae and less than savory pond scum waterhole? We didn't/couldn't identify Spot...he identified us by his happy barks!!).



One of the wonderful things I remember about my mom is the fact that homeless or out of work men would show up at our back door and she'd fix them sandwiches (dad and I were always at home).



She shared a few (not enough though, rats) stories of her childhood. She was born and raised in a very small town in Nebraska where we went every summer for vacation...we're talking no lights, two grocery stores eventually, one restaurant, one barber (my uncle), one movie theater (opened whenever the urge hit the owner), a small newspaper, a farm goods store and fifty-three taverns (well, not really, but at least four or five!) She was very little when she and her six brothers and sisters helped the family move into their permanent new home. Wanting to help, she took the clothesline and it unraveled all the way to the new home (now everyone could find their way there and back)!



When she was in high school, she had a really close girl friend and they were mischievous (imagine that...see my roots?). Mom decided to play a little prank on her girlfriend and put a tack through an erasure on her friend's seat. Sad to say, her friend came in to school late and was really mad (see...anger never pays) so she slammed down her books on her desk (at this point mom is thinking yikes, holy moly, rats, HELP) and sat down with a slam too! The friend jumped back up and let out a bloodcurdling scream. The alarmed teacher asked her what on earth was wrong, but being the devoted friend that she was, my mom's friend calmly (and painfully) said "Oh nothing" and sat back down (after extracting the offending tack) very gingerly. WOW, is that inspiring or what?

This post is being done in blue because was her favorite color...now I'm off (not only that, I'm leaving) on a mission (yup, probably mission impossible) to find some image or picture to put in here...so this will be a 'to be continued' post....

Well, I finally just had to take a picture as blog post refused to upload what I scanned. this is a VERY special pin that my daughter-in-law bought for me shortly after my mother passed away. First, some significance for you: Feeling pretty crushed and going back home after the burial, I happened to step out of the car and see a beautiful butterfly on the bush in front of the house ( a rarity for me to catch) which immediately comforted me because my mother knew of my love for butterflies, so I felt it was a message from her. A few days later my daughter-in-law's eye was caught by a butterfly pin in a spot where she normally would not look, at the retail store she worked, and it was BLUE and she felt the urge to buy it, as if my momma was telling her.

The obvious and wonderful blessing here is of my mother's sweet love.