During some years, March 16 comes and goes and I don’t think about the date, but for some reason today is not like that.

Because it is the date of my mother’s death – 45 years ago – I looked for a crocus that was blooming. I didn’t have much hope in finding one, but there it was. A reminder of Mother’s gift to us for our 10th wedding anniversary on September 14, 1973. The same bulbs have multiplied and are still blooming today.

Daddy and Mother during their dating days – probably sometime during 1942.

Mother on her wedding day – January 1, 1943

This is one of my favorite childhood pictures – with Daddy, Dale, Me, and Mom.

One of the last pictures we have of her – at Marlin and Nancy’s wedding in the summer of 1973.

It was early March 1974 when Mother became ill and was taken to the hospital. At first the doctors thought it was appendicitis, but the pain was from a ruptured tumor that was cancerous and by the time she had pain, it was full of gangrene. A fatal diagnosis in 1974.

My last memory of her alive was when she waved goodbye to me from her hospital bed. I was beginning to realize that she was slipping away from us, and turned my face to the wall of the hospital hallway and sobbed. We learned a few hours later that she was not going to live through the night.

There were some days when I didn’t think I could go on. Prior to her death, we talked almost every day – either face-to-face or on the phone.

Following her funeral, I curled up in our La-Z-Boy and cried and felt sorry for myself – whenever I didn’t have to take care of our children. Jeff was 9, Diane was 8, Jere was 5, and I was pregnant with Deb. After a few days of this, I thought, “If I don’t get a grip, I will never amount to anything – and Mom did not teach me to be a wimp.”

I determined to lead a life of joy and victory – leaning on and learning from Jesus. To this day God has never let me down when I went to Him for strength.

Mom and I liked to shop together. We always joked that we mostly liked to shop because we got to eat out. 🙂 It was really difficult to shop alone during the next year.

Mom, I love the memories of being silly with you. I love that you loved Cerwin and our children. I am grateful that you taught me to trust Jesus. I am grateful for your patience when I was young and careless when my job was to clean my bedroom or the living room and I spent more time reading then cleaning.

You and Daddy gave me a life that I treasure, now more than ever. I have so many friends who grew up in a dysfunctional family. Nothing in my youth was dysfunctional. Nothing.