Today is Mother's Day, May 12, 2019. I need to be getting ready to go spend time with my children today. Instead I want to think and write about my Mama. She died on May 12, 1983, 36 years ago.
Mama was such a wise person. She grew up in East Nashville, one of twelve children and very poor. Her mother died at age 37 and her father was not a good provider. She could have been one of these people filled with hate who tried to find someone to blame. Instead she remembered her life as a good one, full of happiness, surrounded by those she loved. So many times I heard her say, "We may have been poor but we always had everything we needed. We had food and a roof over our heads." And she would always stress that, "We had plenty of soap and water and we were always clean." She never failed to ask me, after a bath if I had washed my neck and ears. Makes me laugh to think of it.
She was the third child and as with most big families the older ones took care of the little ones as they came along. Many of her siblings in their adult years, thought her as a mother figure. Mama was 17 when her mother died, leaving eleven children, six under the age of ten. This included a new baby, six weeks of age. A 12th child had died a few years before.
Mama always seemed to be happy and smiling. I know she had heartache but it rarely showed. She loved to sing and I think it made her happy to do so. She had a song for every occassion and many she would say learned from her little grandpa or from her mother. She taught us that God was love. She taught us to be kind. She taught us right from wrong. She taught us that every person was equal to us.
I miss her very much today. I miss her everyday.
I love you, Mama.
