Mama

I have been working on a story about my mama.  Strange thing to write about someone so close is that it is the most difficult piece to write.  Mama taught me many things to include the love of reading.  She read to me so much when I was a little girl that I memorized one of the books. 

Mama would read while she churned to make butter and buttermilk.  Churning is a boring job with its up and down repetitions of the churn stick in the large churn.  The butter would eventually rise to the top to be scooped up and molded into round chunks of butter.  The milk left after the butter was separated was the buttermilk.  This took awhile and to entertain herself, Mama would read.

Mama's love for reading lead her to writing.  She was a member of the Georgia Romance Writers and attended many of their conferences in Atlanta.  She would share parts of her manuscripts at the conferences, and actually wrote four complete books; however,  because she was a perfectionist, she would not send them to the publishers.  Harlequin requested one of her books, and an editor from another company wanted to read her work. Mama wanted it to be letter perfect before she would let go of her hard work.

Reading and writing were just two of her many hobbies.  Mama was a visionary.  She loved to work with her hands and this included refinishing or making furniture.  She and Granny would build furniture.  They once cut a long sofa into two separate pieces to make a love seat and chair.  They built bookshelves and small shelves to hold knick knacks.  They were a creative duo.

Mama also loved to sew.  She made all of our clothes when we were growing up.  Years ago when I was little the dresses were made from flour sacks. At that time one could buy flour in cloth sacks.  These sacks were brightly colored and the material was just right for making little girl's dresses.  My cousins, Bernice and Barbara, have fond memories and more vivid memories of the flour sack dresses than I have.  I wish I could remember the prints and colors of those flour sacks.

Mama was an early advocate of recycling.  She used the brown paper bags from the grocery store in the kitchen.  These bags were used to drain foods such as the wonderful donuts she would fry.  One of my favorite memories was getting off the school bus and smelling the evidence of the donuts or cake she was making for our afternoon snack.  Just thinking about it makes me long for the delicious bites of her chocolate cake. (Mama was often teased that her stove couldn't bake anything but chocolate cakes.)
It took her several years to actually start using paper towels.  She used cloth towels in the kitchen that could be washed over and over again.




Linda, Dwayne, Eddie, Sherry, and Terry
(I'm sure Mama made the dresses Sherry and I have on to include the blouse under my jumper.)


(Mama also made the pink suit she is wearing in the first picture.)





Mama loved music and could yodel (my brothers and sister don't know this titbit of information) and took areobics classes.  She was a modern woman.  Her eye for fashion was evident in her well matched outfits. Many years after she stopped sewing, she could walk into a store, pull several items down from the rack and the results would be a lovely suit that would be one of a kind.  She knew how to combine items together to get the look she wanted.  She should have gone into fashion design because she sure had an eye for it.  How I wish I had inherited that trait from her!

My mama went home to be with the Lord on April 19, 2006.  She had been very ill for a long time.  Sometimes I get so angry at her for an early death.  I wanted her to be like she was when I was a child--healthy and creative.  To see someone you love sucumb to illness is hard to watch.  The mama I want to remember is the one listening to the radio, sewing cute dresses, and planning a trip to the beach.  She would put on her bikini and get her tan in the backyard then talk my daddy into going.  Daddy didn't like the beach, but he seem to enjoy it once he was there.

I look forward to talking to Mama again.  She taught us about God and the importance of being saved by accepting Jesus Christ as our personal savior and asking forgiveness of our sins.   She reminded us to read our Bibles and to pray.  Every night as each one of us crawled into bed, she would call to us a reminder saying, "don't forget to say your prayers."  Every night when I go to bed, I say my prayers.  Mama taught us well.

It is me again, Lord, thanking you for the love of a mama who taught us to love You and the importance of talking to You.

A little Georgia Wisdom:  Enjoy the time with your mother, read your Bible everyday and whatever you do, don't forget to say your prayers.