My Mom

I wanted y'all to see my mom the way I'll always think of her. She has always been a cutie, very petite. She was one of the feistiest ladies I ever knew. She would always say just exactly what was on her mind. You never had to wonder where you stood with her. I think she got that from her mother, because my Grandmother Louise was just like that, too. I'll have to look through some of her pictures and more of mine and scan them to post here. Until the last couple of years, she always looked younger than she really was. That was her favorite game at the fair: the age guessing. The year that she was 32, they guessed her as 23. I think she won a prize every year she went to the fair. I'll always think of her as a princess in need of rescue. Her dad (my Pa-pa Ace) and then my dad always took care of her. I should have moved more firmly into that role myself when my dad passed away, but I didn't want to "tell her what to do." I'm a rather independent sort and tend to project that onto others, whether they are like that or not.

I plan on looking at as many old pictures of her as I can in the next few days. I want to remember the beautiful woman that I grew up with, not the frail little woman that she was in recent days. She took great pride in her ability to play the ukulele and play with a bolo bat (you know: the wooden paddle with the little ball attached by a long rubber band). I think she was the only person I have EVER known that could keep the ball bouncing off that paddle for any length of time. That is the woman that was my mother.