I have been putting a lot of thought into this post. This is my first SPT post and the theme is Personal History. Funny how things seem to collide in this wold. I have known for a long time that this would be an emotionally trying year for me. I will be 38 this year. The age my mother died from a lung diseases she passed along to me. She is in the far right corner of this picture. It is a poor quality Polaroid picture under terrible lighting but when I found it today it was the most beautiful thing I had seen! I don't remember seeing it before. When looking for pictures and inspiration for this post I found a little photo album that had been my mother's. Written on the front was Grandma's brag book. Apparently after she died my Grandmother ( Left in the pix) put a few pictures in. This picture was taken in the NICU. That is little big girl when she was tiny baby girl. (About 4/12 pounds there). My mom is wearing oxygen in this picture and I am sure going to the hospital and up to the 4th floor was very hard on her. It shows on her face. Only now do I know what a struggle everyday things were for her. My Granny looks so sweet and excited talking to her first great granddaughter. My mother died about 7 months after this picture was taken and my Granny died 9 years later. Until I found this today I didn't know I had a picture of the 3 most special females in my life in one picture. I am just sorry I am not in it. Oh how I wish the four of us could spend time together. My mom told me she felt so selfish because she prayed to God to let her live to see me graduate high school, then to get married, then to see my baby girl born. Each time she felt blessed but longed for more time. I am so near the age she was when she left us and I feel like I have barely lived. She had so much living left to do. This is getting way to deep and depressing so in the vein of another post I read in tribute to someone special who left too soon I am going to try to list some of the things about each of these beautiful women that makes me smile!
First my Mom Theresa. She was beautiful! She had clear blue eyes and milky white skin. She loved to shop, watch soap operas and eat in great restaurants. She was shy but loved people. She was generous and loved to give gifts. She would rather wear jeans and a t shirt than anything else. She spoke her mind and sometimes had the mouth of a sailor. She was very crafty. She passed lots of these traits onto me. Not the beautiful, blue eyes milky skin and sailor mouth part.
Now my Granny. My angel. She raised me for most of my life because my mom was busy fighting demons of her own. I can't post all of the smiles she brings to mind. Here are a few. She had twinkling blue eyes. She never met a stranger and loved every one! Anyone who knew her loved her and probably called her Granny. She had a little beauty shop where little ladies got their hair done. Most of them had regular weekly appointments and got their hair rolled in rollers and teased. This was their church "do". I spent many hours in the beauty shop. She cared for her elderly father before he died, then her mother. All the while raising her daughter's two girls. She was a single mom and a single Granny who owned her own business in a very small town. She taught Sunday School and was the church custodian for a second source of income. She somehow found time to cook and clean house and sew and help with school work and was the most pleasant person I ever knew. She loved to cook and eat and sew and laugh. She loved to travel and shop and decorate for every holiday. She could out do Martha Stewart. She was a quilter and a crafter. She made all the food for my wedding. There will never be another like her. Every day I am aware of things she taught me. I was learning from her even when I didn't know it. Even though my mom may not have been as present in my life as my Granny I learned so much from her as well . I miss them both and know that they are watching over me.
