Glimpses

For Mother’s Day last year my friend Mandi gave me a journal to write down special moments and memories of my mom. It’s a beautiful way to keep her alive for me and for my boys. Today is her birthday, so I thought I would share a few of my favorites from my journal.

~My mom loved to garden. Growing up we loved on a half acre lot. Half of that was gardens. Flower gardens, Hosta gardens, Herb gardens, vegetable gardens.

~She could not pass up a deal. I remember one time my dad finally lost patience with her obsession with buying things just because they were on sale. He feverishly told her there was no way he could down 4 pints of sour cream in the next month before they expired. Due to her obsession we had 3 pantries and 2 stand alone freezers.

~Which leads to her next obsession, freezing food. When she passed away and my dad cleaned out the freezer, he found pounds and pounds of nuts. Some dating back to 1986. She claimed that if the army could freeze food for the troops for decades, so could she.

~But with all this food obsession, she gave me my love of cooking and baking. She loved to cook and bake. And she was good at it. It was her dream to one day go to culinary school. She never did, but she never needed to. Her meals were delectable without the schooling.

~She taught me how to use every part of the Thanksgiving turkey. To strip down the meat, boil the carcass for broth and make the most wonderful soup from that meat and broth. When I eat my turkey noodle soup that I pull from the freezer a month after Thanksgiving is over, I think of her.

~When she was nervous she picked at her fingernails. I have distinct memories of riding in the front seat of her Thunderbird, Bessie, watching her at stoplights picking at her nails.

~Her favorite apples were yellow delicious. Although she knew they made a mushy apple pie, she couldn’t resist to use them every time.

~She almost floated out to sea. As the story goes, my brother was 6 and I was just a baby when we visited the beach. My mom thought she would float around on a raft in the ocean. Not a great idea for someone who can’t swim. Not too long later my dad looks out to see my mom floating further and further away. He left me in the hands of my very young brother, dove into the water and beat the lifeguard out to pull her back in. She learned her lesson. I never saw her on a raft in my life.

~My mom was the strongest and most hard working woman I ever knew. She had a HARD life and overcame most of it. She worked day in and day out every day for 40 years at her job in the steel mill. She started out as a payroll clerk and later had tenure to pick a job in the lab. She worked there through years of illness and treatments. Even when we would tell her to rest, she just wanted and needed to keep going.

~She sounded like the chicken lady from Kids in the Hall. Matt does an uncanny impression, but here’s the real deal, in case you aren’t familiar.

Happy Birthday Mom!  We miss your clucking.