MOM

My mom was the greatest woman I ever knew. She taught me that hard work and perseverance would always get you to whatever goal you had set for yourself; She taught me always to keep my head up and a smile on my face to face the world with dignity no matter what hardships it threw at me.

Getting up early was an absolute must. We would begin our day with a cup of coffee; if that were your thing, then we would gather around the breakfast table and discuss what our plans were for the day, but the first part of the day was for her. After breakfast, we would go to the garden while it was still barely light enough to see outside, had to get the planting done or the harvesting depending on which time of year it was, and then we could play visit friends, whatever we chose to do.

Most of the time, I chose to go fishing with mom, after we dug some worms or took some out of the freezer "don't ask." we would walk the half-mile to the creek, then she would put a few drop lines out, find her a spot to sit and use her fishing pole the rest of the time. She could sit for hours without even getting a bite, just enjoying the day, Then we would take the wald back up the hill, and I would clean the fish so she could put them in the freezer, then after everyone was home again, we would cook dinner, clean the kitchen and play games like sorry and scrabble. We always played games in the evening. If it was rummy or another card game, you couldn't tell if she had a good or bad hand because she was always humming.

She always had some kind of advice to give you for any situation, you may not understand it at the time, but you would later like if you were fighting with your husband/wife and you came to her complaining, she would say something like "you made your bed you lye in it."

During the summer, we would always go camping on the weekends. I loved to go camping with my mom. We would fish and cook outside, go swimming, then when it got dark; we would gather around the campfire and sing five or six of her favorite songs, then she would tell ghost stories. Bloody Bones and Bloody Teeth scared me more times than once in my life. As for the holidays, she made sure they were special no matter whether we had money or not. She would start baking the week before Thanksgiving, and her kitchen always looked and smelled like a bakery around that time of the year; it seemed like I spent hours at the stove stirring pie filling, and the cakes, we had chocolate, coconut, pineapple upsidedown and the candy cake, it was almost too beautiful to eat.

I don't know how she did it because she had fourteen kids, and all of them were married except for me and my brother Joe, so add the in-laws and the grandchildren, but every person got a gift for Christmas. All the family would come over for dinner, and there were so many people that the wasn't room around the table for everyone; People were scattered everywhere around the house, onto the porch, and into the yard. We always had a lot of laughter going on. The biggest deal was moms' dressing seemed like we were always fighting over who got the first helping, then it was arguing over who got the egg custard pie first, all in good fun though, no fighting ever went on at moms' house. She didn't tolerate fighting and drinking at her house, and she never met a stranger; if you happened to be walking and showed up at her house for a rest before you went on your way, you were treated like family. Most people who stopped by usually stayed for a month or so to get back on their feet.

My mom was the cornerstone of our family, the heartbeat that kept us going. Sometimes I can still hear her walking around the house humming a song.