"Momma,The Heart of Our Home"

It has been some time since I wrote about my Dad and my Grandma Price. Both very much loved and so very important in my life.
Now I want to tell you another story. This time about my momma.
I have wondered what exactly I would say when I told this story but, for some reason have put off writing it because -- Well, I don't really know for sure why I haven't done it.
It certainly isn't that there aren't many, many wonderful things to tell about Momma, there certainly are.
Perhaps, and I had not really thought of this before, but perhaps, it is partly because I still miss her so much.
She has been gone now for several years, but, to try and tell the world (or the dozen or so people that may or may not read this) just how special she was is not easy, because it makes me miss her even more.
I have always been a little on lazy side and if something is not easy for me then I may put it off forever if I think I can possibly get by with that.
Of course, it has not kept me from getting myself into trouble, time and again.
Apparently my mind sometimes plays games with me and tells me something is going to be easy at the beginning, but then, I find out much too late that it is much harder than I had anticipated!
Unfortunately, when you commit to do something (especially when you have told someone else you will do it) then it can be a problem that must be completed! I call it my (Open Mouth -- Insert Foot) complex!!!
So on with my story.
Momma was a wise wonderful lady that always gave her all to everyone.
She told me once,that sometimes, her all did not feel like enough.
By the time she became MY mother she had also served in the role of daughter, career woman, wife and mother to 4 older children and also a fifth, who was delivered only a few short moments before my birth and happens to be my twin brother. I was number 6 (if you don't include the little twins that were born too early to survive several years before our birth.)
Now think for a moment if you will. The challenges our earlier generations had to deal with. No heat without the effort of putting coal or wood into the pot belly stove, no faucets with hot and cold water, no indoor bathroom, no shower, and until "the twins came along" no automatic washer.
But, life became "so much easier" with the addition of a new set of twins and an automatic washing machine.
Let's see --- A nine year old, a 7 year old (who had heart trouble), a 5 year old, a baby that was 11 months old and now two newborns!
Heres how that wonderful new washing machine worked. If I remember how I was told -- First, you carried water and put it into the tub with shaved pieces of soap. Next, you put a load of laundry in and the miracle machine would agitate the wash load until it was finished (I don't know if it had a timer of any kind) at which time you had to lift each piece of clothing out and put it through a hand ringer (two rollers and a handle that you turned) until that piece of clothing fell through into a tub with clean water to be rinsed at which time you repeated the wringing process (twice, I think) and then the items were hung out to dry.
Of course, while you were doing this you had to clean house, make the meals, change diapers, weed the garden, wipe runny noses, and take care of the dogs, chickens and various other animals that also happened to be living with the family at the time.
As I told you before "Thank God for the fact that my Grandma was there to help her out!" I don't know if she would have made it through otherwise.
We moved several times during the years as I was growing up and though I don't really remember much of anything from my earliest years, I know that no matter where we lived She was the rock that held us all together.
Daddy struggled with depression and if it had not been for Mamma's love I do not believe he would have gotten through many of the hard times.
She was a wonderful cook, although she never thought she was and the house was always warm and welcoming.
We were a wild bunch and I just know it was not an easy life for her.
There was a time that she would eat uncooked oatmeal out of the box as a snack. She told me that she even ask our doctor if he could explain why she craved raw oatmeal and he told her he could not explain it, but perhaps her body had a deficiency and it was telling her she needed it.
Once she told me that even though things were hard she never wanted to leave us, but that she daydreamed sometimes that if she could "just go out and hide in the middle of the field, with her box of oatmeal and a bottle of water" she would be able to rest awhile and she would be alright.
She also said that she believed "Daddy never really understood how exausted she was all the time."
We started going to church the year I was 6 and I remember sitting beside her and holding her hand. I can still feel how warm and secure I felt when I held onto those precious hands.
When we moved into town when I was 8 she scrubbed and painted and put wallpaper on the walls to make the house look nice for us. Dad did a lot of cleaning the yard and fixing on the outside. They made a deal with the lady that owned the house that they would work to make it better and she gave them something off the cost of the rent.
The year I was fifteen she had to have surgery the same time my older brother Richard was having open heart surgery close to 200 miles away. She was so worried about him, but had to be in one hospital while he was in another close to 200 miles away. They both had serious complications, but, thank God for bringing them through that very tough summer.
She was a wonderful seamstress and although I don't have any idea how she found the time she not only mended our clothing, but she sometimes sewed wonderful things for us.
One thing that I was impressed with were the wonderful gowns she made for each of us girls.
Betty had a beautiful white taffeta (I think) dress, with a very full tea length skirt and low V neck.
Jeanie's gown was long and gorgeous. It was strapless, red with a white sheer overlay and a wide red satin cumber bun.
The year I was 16 I wanted a yellow dress I saw in the Sears catalog. She asked if I would like her to make it and when she had finished it,I thought it was the most beautiful dress I had ever seen!(It was much prettier than the catalog version which another classmate wore to the dance!) That dress was yellow satin and had a strapless top under a white lace top and long lace sleeves (trimmed with the yellow satin). The skirt had two layers. One of yellow satin and the other of yellow chiffon.
I went to the prom that year (with the love of my life, the man I was to marry 2 years later) feeling like I was as beautiful as a princess.
I can see this is getting to be way to long and so I think I will stop for the moment and perhaps continue another day with "Momma, Part II"