My Mom

My mother is a Mississippi Girl. She is the baby sister of Texican's daddy and by the time she came along her siblings were already off to war or to marriage.

My mother lives with the glass half full--someone once observed that if she was the director of public relations for the devil his image would be quite different. But, that said, I think her childhood was difficult and when people talk about the hard times of the Depression, she offers that on the farm in Mississippi they never noticed the Depression--they were always just poor.

While still in high school, she was swept off her feet by my dad and in a few weeks they will have been married for 53 years--sweethearts still.

In 1965, my father's job transferred him to Massachusetts--it may as well have been Siberia to all of the family--but move we did. Mom may not have wanted the move, but once it was made, we were going to make the best of it. One thing I remember about that adjustment is something that pretty well capsulizes my mother's personality. She went to a rummage sale and bought ice skates for herself, my brother and me. Then she drove to a pond where people were skating. We weren't even real clear on how to lace up the skates, but we did our best and hobbled on floppy ankles out to where everyone was skating. My sweet mother said with her soft southern accent--"Kids, I can't help you here, just watch what other people are doing and do it." So, we skated--we skiied, we went sliding, but we also planted the most beautiful gardens that Massachusetts had ever seen. We had dinner parties that were renowned throughout the area for the hospitality and the cuisine. We sang Stamps Baxter gospel songs around the piano and ate pralines and divinity at Christmas. In short, Massachusetts knew that a southern magnolia was in its presence.

My father's job took them south again about the time I graduated from high school. They were very happy to be back and I thought they would never leave. But, when life brought me to Maine, they decided that they were right behind me--and they have been in every sense of the phrase.

Something I told my daughters once when one of them said something that could have come out of my mouth--you can't fight it--we are our mother's daughters, so just go with it and be proud.

I love you Mom and Happy Mother's Day