I Remember Mama

No, not the movie from 1948 with Irene Dunne but from my own life with the 31 short years I had with my mama. As I prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving this week I can’t help but remember and give thanks for my mother. It was 24 years ago this Friday that she died from breast cancer and was buried on my birthday, November 30, 1985.

In counting my blessings my mother is always close to the top of this list (my Savior is always first). To borrow a line from the movie… “But first and foremost I remember mama with her secret bank account and her wide open heart for other people’s troubles.”

Mother didn’t have a secret bank account but she lived on a budget and out of that budget she was able to put aside a little bit of money to provide for her family the little extras that the budget didn’t allow. She did without so that her children wouldn’t.

Mother loved her friends as though they were her sisters and she grieved with them and for them. I remember every Friday as she prepared for company – the cleaning and baking and ultimately the joy that an evening of fellowship over “Forty-two” would bring.

I remember her commitment to her Lord and Savior and I saw it lived out on a daily basis. I remember her commitment to sharing her love of Christ through teaching children. She taught 1st grade Sunday school for 32 years and only stopped when the cancer wouldn’t allow her to continue. She shared that love with me and I too have been blessed to carry her work on in teaching children the life saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!

I remember her commitment to her husband and how she loved him. She was indeed his helpmate. She never worked outside of the home but she divided her time between his business and the family so that both were taken care of.

I remember how she loved me and my sister. She supported us in the things that were important to us and she saw to it that we did the things that would make us grow. When zoning took place as I was entering high school and was forced to enroll in the “rival” school, my mother made me join the drill team there. Though I knew no one and truly did not want to do it, ultimately, at the end of high school I had won one of the top offices in the drill team and had many new friends which included my future husband!

I remember how she loved her son-in-laws and how they loved her. I don’t know how it happened exactly but long before Tony and I were married he was calling her Mom and meaning it.

I remember how she looooooooooooooved her grandchildren and was always more than willing to babysit!!














I remember wonderful Sunday lunches after church, family reunions planned by mother, her fun sense of humor, painting lessons at Montie Beach Park, and summer trips to her mother’s in Lockhart.

I remember how hard it was to let my mama go but what a relief it was and is to know that I will see her again one day. I love you, mama!

"An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. " Proverbs 31:10-12