|
 Tribute To Our Mother
 |
Mom, Dad, and the "Lucky
Seven" |
 |
My
Mama
Her
mama was widowed, when she was just five....
Her
mama picked cotton to keep the family alive.
Though
she had but one dress, she didn't feel poor....
She
was loved by her mama, and she asked for no more.
She
was the youngest of the five kids....
But
no baby could do all the things that she did.
She
never complained, she just worked hard and prayed...
That
things would get better for her mama someday.
At
fourteen she married, and had her own family....
in
all there were seven, and the oldest was me.
Oh,
the heartaches I caused her....right from the
start,
but
she kept right on loving me, with all her heart.
What
we lacked in money, she made up for with love...
And
her laughter and joy was abundant enough
to
make the worst of the bad times seem almost good...
And
when that didn't work, her prayers always
would.
Now
so many years later....I can still hear her pray,
"Lord,
please let things be better for my children
someday"
She
doesn't realize, where I am concerned.....
That
she's made me rich, with the lessons I've learned.
You
see, all her prayers are for somebody else....
Never
asking God a better life for herself.
And
her life has been hard, and filled with much pain...
But
like her mother before her, she never complains.
She
taught me to love, and to give of myself....
And
that self-respect is more important than wealth.
She
taught me that prayer is a powerful thing....
And
that Gods' awesome love can happiness bring.
By
her example, I learned
right from wrong....
By
her example, I learned to
be strong.
So
now, Dear Lord, I want her to know...
She's
the best mom on Earth, and I love her so.
written
for My Mother, Louise Ford...by Rinda Nelson ©1999
Mama,
I love you so very, very much.....
and
I am so PROUD to be your daughter
|
Mom was actually
seven when her father died. That was in 1933, and
times were hard,. especially for a
widow who had never had a paying job in her life before, and had five kids to provide for in
depression-time Oklahoma. Grandma had two
daughters and three son... Audie being the oldest,
followed by Murphy, Ben, Ike, and my mom, Louise. Audie
married, the three boys joined my grandmother in
the cotton fields from dawn to dusk trying to eke
out...not a "living", but a "surviving"...and
that left little 7 year old Louise doing things
that many 25 year olds today can't do...like
cleaning house and cooking dinner. ;-) Washing
her 'good school dress' each night, and curling
her hair with home made tin "curlers".
Seven
years later she married the good-looking friend
of her brothers. I was born when she was fifteen,
and at the age of 18 months I thought it might be
fun to play in a fire, resulting in third degree
burns on my legs. There would be no surgery, no
skin grafts for me, and she was told that the
muscles and tendons in my leg were so badly
damaged that I probably would not be able to walk
again.
Yet
that girl that was barely seventeen spent hours
massaging and rubbing oils on my legs, praying
that my leg would heal. And in her spare time she
did our laundry by hand on a scrub-board(anyone
know what that is? ;-) cut and carried wood for
both the heating and cooking stoves, carried
water from the creek, cuz the well was dry, made
lye soap to scrub the wood floors, and, if it was
Saturday night, filled the galvanized wash tub
with bath water(That she heated on the wood
kitchen range) while she waited by the dim light
of an oil lamp for her drunken husband to come
home.
She
was still just a kid....yet she did all that.
Modern
conveniences made her life easier in many ways
during the 50's....but it began to seem like
there was a lot of "Saturday Nights" in
a week. I won't embarrass her with the details of
her twenty years of marriage to my abusive father...God
rest his soul, He's been forgiven...but I will
say I am STILL amazed at the strength she
possessed.
In
1962, I introduced her to the man that would
become her husband the following year, and
whenever I use the term "Dad", it is of
him I speak. He has been a wonderful father to
all seven of us kids, even though he already had
five of his own. No one would ever know he is a 'step-father'.
Maybe that's because he has forgotten that little
fact, too. :-)
If
mom's body and health had held up as well as her
spirit...and her spirituality...her life now
would be so very good. She handles the constant
physical pain she lives with now the same way she
has coped with every hardship life has dished out
to her....with dignity, grace, prayer and a very
deep inner-strength.
Is
it any wonder that I love her so very much?
|
|
.........and God bless Mommy 'n' Daddy..........Amen.
|
|
|
|
I hope you've
enjoyed meeting my mama. I'd like for you to meet
the rest of my wonderful family...and you can...right
here:)Thank you
for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your visit in Our Family
Nest of WrensWorld. You are always welcome,so please come
again.
|
|
| I regret that
I am unable to give the proper credit to those
that created the beautiful graphics I have used
on this page. If you will let me know who you are,
I will see to it that you receive the credit that
you so richly deserve. Thank you. |
|
 
  
Links To The Branches
In Wren's World
And Other Tributes and Memorials
Send
Page
Midi playing is "Wind Beneath My Wings"
|
