Today would’ve been Mama’s 96th birthday. I’ve been thinking about her all week, especially when I saw the irises blooming the other day.
Mother was always clothed with strength and dignity; a very stylish lady and she loved to go shopping, particularly in her later years.
She enjoyed clothes, purses and shoes… Oh, how she loved shoes! They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree so that explains where I, her granddaughter, Whitney, her great-granddaughter, Maeley, all get our loves of shoes!
When she passed away we were going through her closet I admired a very cute white coat with black leopard spots she’d only worn once or twice and I chose to bring it home.
I also brought home three pairs of shoes. The two pictured below are cute, dressy shoes which remind me of her so much. I love wearing my mama’s shoes ~ I get compliments on them to this day!
One pair was very comfortable -looking.
I thought I would wear them to school since they were broken-in.
I never wore new shoes to school since I was teaching Kindergarten and on my feet practically all day.
My husband probably rolled his eyes because I, like my mother, had around 85 pairs of shoes. Pick your jaw up off the floor because that counts my flip flops too! ( Like Mama, I’m a thrifty gal and enjoy the thrill of a good shoe sale! 😉)
The night before the first day of school I picked out my clothes and chose to wear the shoes pictured on the left.
(I’ll link another blog post below with a funny story that goes along with these shoes… read it especially if you’re a teacher, a shoe-lover, or if you want a good chuckle!)
I’ll just say this….Mama grew up in the Great Depression era when times were hard and you didn’t throw away useful items. She and Daddy taught this to me as well. 😉
We’re both very sentimental women as well, saving mementoes and family heirlooms.
In February I decorate with her grade-school Valentines and I used memorabilia she saved including postcards from my dad, who was in the Merchant Marines, to make shadow boxes for her and him too. All of these things held precious memories for her and I treasure them as well.
Mama passed on a love of gardening and flowers to me too. She gave me rootings from her azaleas, sasanquas, forsythias, along with irises and daffodils. I have all of these planted in our yard and gather a bouquet of blooms on her birthday each year.
She read her Bible and prayed, was faithful to attend church, serving as the church secretary for awhile. She was such a thoughtful and encouraging person, sending cards to friends, family and fellow church members on special occasions and preparing comfort food along with clipping obituaries from the journal to send to those who were grieving.
She was a hard-working woman, doing her best at whatever task came her way. She taught me that if a task was worth doing, it was worth doing correctly. When I did my chores, I had to redo them if they weren’t done to her expectations (Daddy insisted on this too). Several nights she made me come back into the bathroom and hang my towel up on the rack after I had carelessly put it up there. I FINALLY figured out that it was easier to do the job correctly the FIRST TIME! (Note to other Moms: It will sink in if you’re consistent)
She was a Proverbs 31 woman of sorts. I don’t think she ever gave less than one hundred percent, whether it was at her “various and sundry jobs” as she put it, or in her volunteer roles. She did not “eat the bread of idleness” but she did enjoy a pack of “Nabs” and a Coke every day!
She was also a caring and concerned friend, sister, aunt, mother, and grandmother. I can’t recall her saying a negative word about anyone. But I will say that Whitney did tell me something she said to a friend who had a bad habit of over-doing her tanning though. 😅 If she did make disapproving comments like this, it was because she was concerned about someone’s health or well-being.
Thank you, Mama, for being a godly role model of what a woman should strive to be in all of these areas.
Dinah's Dabblings 