Things I Remember...

Things I remember about Mother…

Sitting between her legs on the floor in front of her while she “platted” my hair
Taking naps with her on the sofa in the middle of the day
Holding a straw in my mouth while she sewed a button on my sweater
Going to “rummage sales” on Saturday mornings (on Central Avenue)
Helping her Garden in the backyard
Her helping me plant potato eyes and digging up baby potatoes months later
Sitting on the front porch speaking to passersby
Her laughing at things I said
Drinking coffee with her and Daddy at the kitchen table each morning
Watching “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” with her each day
Her helping me bake an Apple Pie
Running from whippings (she didn’t really want to catch me anyway)
Her running my bathwater
Twirling her hair around my finger to make it curl
Rides to church
Talking to her about her family history
Driving her to the mall to shop & her not wanting to use her wheel chair “I don’t need that thing”
Making her sit in her wheel chair anyway “Mother, you want to sit down for a minute?” her reply “Yeah, I think I better” (she was 91 at the time)
Her teaching me how to make her homemade biscuits
Her “fussing” because the biscuits were “too big”
Driving to “the country” to visit family
Her coordinating her hats with her outfits
Her always wearing something on her head (“I gotta keep something on my head”)
Sitting in the bathroom talking to her while she took a bath and telling my grandfather he had no manners when he came to tell her something (LOL)
Her rubbing alcohol on my legs and feet after I had come home from a 17 mile Walk-A-Thon
Long talks on the phone
Dialing numbers for her
Turning the channels to her favorite show
Her waking “before day in the morning”
Her asking about my youngest son “where’s my big man?”
Her commenting on food she’d eat “things don’t taste like they used to”
Her always needing to go somewhere “I need to go to the mall”
Her taking care of my grandfather when he was bedridden
Her putting the only picture of herself at age 18 in my grandfather’s suit pocket at his funeral “he told me to hold it for him when he started getting sick, that was his picture” (that was the only copy)
A few hours before she died, me and “her big man” called and spoke to her for the last time