Dear Ruby Lee

“You not gon’ run me crazy, I’m gon’ run YOU crazy” - Ruby Lee Spencer.

That’s what you used to tell me, Rudy and Kindal on a daily basis, mama Ruby. This was just one of your countless famous quotes. Though you’re no longer among the living I know you’re looking down on me knowing how much I love you, but during this season of thanksgiving I want you to know how grateful I am for all that you have given me.

First and foremost you gave me life, not just because you gave birth to me, but because you always raised me to live an active life. When it came to being a busy body you were definitely the busiest. You love to exercise and stay fit and you always made sure your children were just as active. It was fun going to the gym with you and taking long walks with you after you gave birth to Kindal. You even made sure I ran on your treadmill a lot after you found out I had asthma. Essentially you taught me that an active life is a healthy life.

There are two types of people on this earth: introverts and extroverts. Though most people are one or the other, you were a perfect mix of both. I love that you loved to go out and about and even travel, but that you also like to sit in the house and just hang and watch movies, having what we basically referred to as family time. To this day that mixture still lives in me because I love to go out a lot, but I also love my stay in and chill time.

I like to think that I’ve mastered the art of perseverance during hard times. I tell anyone in a minute that I got this strength from you. I appreciate how you taught me to be strong when times got hard. Even when you were frustrated you never complained, you never played the victim or felt sorry for yourself. You just did everything in your power to resolve an issue. You even stayed positive and kept a good attitude in a way that I always joked about seeming inhuman. I think a lot of this strength also came from your experiences serving in the US Navy. You were always a soldier and soldiered through life.

Part of this came from the strong sense of faith you taught us to have. Your relationship with God was always most important to you and you taught me that if I stay in faith and go to him in all things then there is no trial of life that I can’t make it through. You also said that I should always give glory to God when I first wake up in the morning and right before I go to sleep at night. I’m still loyal to those teachings to this day.

In addition to of course raising me right and taking care of me, the greatest gift you ever gave me was your loving affection. I couldn’t walk past you at home and not receive your warm smile and You never went a day without randomly telling me “I love you”. Even when I would go to school you always wrote me love notes on my lunch that I was embarrassed by, hoping that my friends would never see them, but though I couldn’t stand them when I was a kid I look back and wish I would’ve saved all those notes. In your absence those notes mean everything.

Dear Ruby Lee, you passed away over 14 years ago and yet every part of you still lives on through me. As a kid you taught me the importance of reading and writing by making me do so all the time. Fast forward to today and my passion is writing and I aspire to be one of the greatest writers ever and it’s all because you. Dear mama, thank you for the gift of life and teaching me all its meaning.

~I am forever grateful. Love, your son.