Momma, The Heart of our Home, Part 2

Momma was not only a loving mother and wife, but she was gifted with many talents as well.
Her plans in early life did not include even having a large family. She said she expected to become a teacher and raise cats! She did get her teaching certificate but never got a school. (I suppose lacking a car (she didn't even get a license to drive until much later) or not wanting to go far away probably was part of the reason. "Boy, was that a plan that never worked out!" Instead, after she married she never worked away from home and instead of cats she raised 7 children! (and a few cats and dogs too!)
After graduation she lived and worked in Wichita, Kansas taking care of children and cleaning.
She then got a job at the Wichita Eagle and was working there when she was invited to go with some friends on a picnic. That day she met a young man who was working with a C.C.C. (Civilian Conservation Corp) group at Roaring River State Park in SW. Missouri. They spent the afternoon together. They wrote letters while he was traveling around the country and married two years later.
She loved writing poetry and wrote many heartfelt verses. Most were about everyday things such as love and family, some were spiritual and some were "just for fun". She wrote one about "A mail order puppy that arrived without a tail" and even one about "the stork bringing her two babies, instead of one"!
When I was a young teen she decided she would take up oil painting. She continued painting for the remainder of her life and there was. almost always, oil paints and "partially finished masterpieces" set up so she could work as time permitted.
At first she only painted for herself but, as time went on and many people seemed to appreciate her work, she would paint pictures as gifts and later she painted one each year that was used used as a prize in her garden clubs yearly "flower show". Her favorite subject was old "mills and waterwheels".
For quite a number of years, Dad was ill and not able to do a lot of things away from home. Mom stayed with him and never seemed to be unhappy or resentful about it. That was just the way things were and perhaps it wasn't always as you wanted but, you accepted it and did the very best you could.
When we lost Dad at 72 years old (he had a heart at tact on his birthday and died a month later) we worried about Mom being alone, But, being the person she was, she did not sit around feeling sorry for herself.
Instead she surprised all of us by becoming more active at church and that was also when she joined the local guarded club. She made many special friends and loved working with the flowers she planted. She always loved flowers and this gave her the opportunity to work with them and learn more about them than she ever had before. Her favorite flower was the rose.
She was so proud of her pretty arrangements and always took pictures of them and the many ribbons she won.
She remained living in their house for a year after Dad passed away and then, because it was just too much for her financially and to care for on her own, she sold it and moved into an apartment, only a few blocks away in the small Senior Complex that her and Dad had helped bring to their tiny community. She became the manager there and continued until shortly before she moved in with my sister Jeanie and brother-in-law just a couple of years before her death three years ago.
She loved every one of her children and grandchildren. She would start knitting months before Christmas making footies. Never in her almost Ninety-three years was there a child in the family that did not have a gift at Christmas. Many times they were homemade, but they were always well loved.
She never missed a birthday and mailed cards to everyone in the family and also wrote many letters to friends far away.
She sewed a quilt for every grandchild. They received them when they got married (and on occasion without the wedding).
The last few years of her life we were blessed to have her come to Ohio and spend several weeks before Christmas with us. It will always be a cherished time for our family.
Weekly she and I would go to the public library and she would get stacks of books which she would finish before the week was over and also every day she would do the daily cross word puzzle in our local paper.
One of my now favorite memories is of the visit the year before she passed away. I pulled a plastic bin out of the closet that was full of our grandchildrens dress-up cloths. They had pretty much stopped playing with them and I was going to get rid of some things. In the pile was a long slinky dress with red sequins sewed all over it. I pulled it out and told Mom I thought she could go to a Christmas party wearing that dress. She quickly took it and pulled it up over her cloths and then put a hat on her head. "Wow, I said, it fits everything EXCEPT at the top!" She then pulled even more things out and STUFFED the front of the dress full! We were laughing so hard we could hardly stand up!
Momma didn't worry about how old she was, she just enjoyed life the best she knew how and gave not only me, but countless others many, many special memories!