Remembering Mother........January 25, 2019

 Mother has been gone two years now.....
sometimes it seems like so long ago and then again.....
it seems like she's just been gone a short time.

I no longer grieve for Mother......my niece, Leah, wisely said that her Aunt Linda had done her grieving before Granny died. I think that's true. Not only I but my other siblings as well.......all six of us.

Still.....today is an anniversary and Mother will be happy that we are remembering her today.
I remember so many good things about Mother.

She never had a desire to do anything in the way of arts and crafts, and yet, when I was in the midst of a messy divorce and I needed to make some extra money to pay the bills, Mother was right there in my dining room helping me paint and decorate hammers to sell at a craft fair in Oklahoma.

When my divorce was final in August 2004, I got off  work that Friday evening, drove over to her house and we celebrated. Leah had bought us a special bottle of wine and took our picture.

I spent that weekend in Fort Worth with Mother, Leah, Deanie and Nita......

and I felt their love and suppport for me.

Mother made a point of connecting with my children that year when so many things were changing in  our lives.

She was there for me in January 2005 and strongly encouraged me to join eHarmony.

That New Years weekend she stayed on the phone with me for hours as I filled out all the many pages for my 'Profile Match.'

Then in April, when I matched with Louis Dean and he wanted to 'fast track'....she was on the phone with me and said, "Click YES!"

This is us on our first date which was in Fort Worth - we met at the zoo and then went over to Mother's house. She took this photo and said she knew right then that Louis Dean was 'the one.'

I had not so much as hugged even my brother for a good while and when she saw how comfortable I was from the begining with Louis Dean, she knew he was 'the one' she had been praying for!

We met in April and married in June.

At our wedding, when the preacher asked who was giving this woman in marriage......Mother stepped forward and said, "Her children and I."

Labor Day Weekend........Mother, Louis Dean and I  went down to San Marcos to see Amber.

We stayed with her in the apartment and toured the college, shopped for groceries to fill up her pantry, drank wine together and had a good time.

It was a memorable weekend!

And the last one we had together before Mother had a stroke later that month.

I talked to her on the phone on our way home from Arkansas where Louis Dean and I had gone to celebrate my birthday. That was the last time I heard her speak in her normal voice.

Early in the morning of September 25th, Mother had a stroke....

and nothing was ever the same again.

The day we all took Mother to Trail Lake Nursing Home.....

many many years after her stroke.

I think this was July 2017.

This photo was taken by Summer in 2019 as Mother was nearing the end.

Today has been a day of remembering.....and that's been a good thing.

Louis Dean and I got our car washed and cleaned out.....took stuff to Goodwill only to be told they are FULL! And they were. Loads of stuff sitting outside waiting to be processed.

So we went to another thrift store and left our things with them.

We are packed and ready to hit the road in the morning - hopefully shortly after 9:00 am.

I would love to get to Galveston before the afternoon Houston traffic - which starts at 3:00!

We have our reservations and will stay in a suite on Seawall Blvd with a balcony view of the water!

It's been two years or more since Louis Dean has gone with me to the coast and he is as excited as I am.

We are planning on coming back Friday and stopping at the ranch for the weekend if the roads dry up enough. Even the county roads are mushy!

Among other things......