My Momma

That's my Momma on the left.

I think the little scowling girl may be her cousin.

She was a great doll lover/collector her whole life. I have her doll collection.

My mom died in 1995 after I helped her battle metastatic breast cancer for 8 long years. It spread almost immediately to her lung and then eventually to her brain.

Of her 4 children, I am her only daughter. I took her to every doctor, hospital, surgery, radiation and chemo appointment for 8 years. Then cared for her around the clock for the last 4 years.

B had already been through the cancer deaths of both his parents since we were married, and a miscarriage of our second pregnancy. In the end, when my momma was bedridden, he needed to help me care for her and all it involved, since I was more than half way through my 3rd pregnancy.
My mom always said B was her "favorite son-in-law". To which he would reply, "I'm not worried about losing that status. I've kind of cornered the market!!"

At the time of my mom's death, B and I and little E. and my brother were at my mom's side, here at home. I was 5 months along in our 3rd pregnancy carrying our second daughter, A. My 4th pregnancy would end in yet another miscarriage. Our 5th pregnancy brought us our little boy N.-- then we quit while we were ahead!

July would have been Mom's 80th birthday. I miss her.

Here's a cool fact about my Mom; one of many:

Once, at Christmastime she wrote a letter to the occupants of each of the houses in which she had lived in her lifetime. { Growing up, my Mom's family moved several times between Ohio and Mi.} She informed them of when she had lived there and shared specific memories about certain rooms or areas of the house, told about how her bedroom was set up, what she saw as a view from her bedroom window and memories of playing in the yard as a child. She even shared the story of meeting my Dad when they lived on the same street.

She received replies from almost all of them. The people were so amazed that someone would do that and thought it wonderful.

So did I. I have the letters.