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| Itasca Lake,Minnesota 1983; 63 years old |
Much has been laid on me regarding the various skills she had as a young person, but those skills were only in and out most of the rest of her life from childhood.
WELL, since I am the oldest of her kids that she raised, I now have remembered how I, as a young 'un, learned what to do and how to do some things. Most of the time, previously, of course, I have been focused on the serious, angry, battling events in our family. Since I was the oldest of the kids by nearly 5 years, and in charge of the others so often until I graduated from high school, I rarely thought of the good options that had entered my life through her.
So, how did she drop my personal skills into me?
She played sax until after she graduated from high school in 1938. She was a very tall girl [eventually 6'2"] and she looked like quite a player in the photos I finally saw a couple years ago. When I was 9 years old, 4th grade, she gave me her sax to begin to learn at school. I had it until I graduated. I didn't have an opportunity to have a sax again, and I didn't consider an option until I was 42. My pianist and musician-oriented husband, who I had recently married, asked if I could still do it. I told him I remembered the sax fingering, but couldn't blow the same way. He bought me,
She was a reader. When I was 5, she got me some. By the time I was about 8 years old, I would read the Encyclopedia and pick up some of the many books in the house. I've been a reader and writer ever since.
One thing she did, that helped me, but I couldn't ever truly do well, was drawing pictures. She was a really, really good one. I did OK, but I quit when I was in junior high. I went to the acting, directing and writing plays. Didn't draw any more, ever.
When in 8th grade, studying Civil War, and needing to write a several-page history "book", the one thing I wanted to do, but couldn't, Mom did it for me. She drew the pictures of Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman on the title cover page. That was really a great help for me.
I've been thinking of my Mom in Heaven. She was a hard worker. Her last official working job ended at her 80th birthday.
I can hardly wait to see her in eternity... and none of the garbagy junk stuff that was in her life --- my dad's, too, of course --- [and mine, of course].
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| Mom, Dad, and me. Portland, 1947 |
Mom made a difference in my life in a variety of ways. She truly loved music, books, and art from childhood. Now, she's got it again. And my sisters and I, our kids and grandkids, and others, too, through what came through her to us.
Another day of my heart hollering HALLELUJAH!
