Courageous Survivor, Enthusiastic Leader and Eternal Optimist
She survived!
She survived the death of her mother when she was five, leaving four children under the age of 7.
She survived being raised by reluctant and weary grandparents who had already raised 10 children of their own.
She survived The Great Depression during her teenage years, collecting gum wrappers to scrape off the foil to sell by the ounce.
She survived being on her own at age 14, working as a "mother's helper" caring for five children in exchange for room, board and a little pocket money while she attended high school making grades good enough to become the class Salutatorian and win a two-year scholarship to Tucumcari Junior College.
She survived losing a still-born first daughter and then when I was two, being a single mother for two years at a time when jobs for women were scarce and paid very little.
She survived losing her only son in Vietnam when the plane he was piloting was shot down.
She survived nine years working with her husband BW on a SE Colorado dirt farm, living 20 miles from the nearest town and 5 miles from the nearest neighbor, carrying water uphill from a spring, doing without electricity or plumbing and cooking for harvest crews on a wood stove. After three years they moved to the nearest town during the school year and only lived on the ranch during summers and harvest time.
She worked hard!
My Mom was a full-time housewife and mother until 1954. While B stayed in Colorado to finish the harvest and find a buyer for the ranch, she with B Jr. and I, moved to Amarillo Texas, rented a small house and leased a plate lunch diner called the Viaduct Cafe--which she managed alone for 1 and 1/2 years. When the ranch sold, they eventually bought the diner and managed it together until 1962 when they sold it and moved to T. or C. for B's health.
When B died, she sought refuge in her church work and through continuing the Community Sing she started in their home in 1962. Under her leadership it continues even today--43 years later--every Monday night in the church she attended.
Through the Sing she had met SS and in December 1966 they were married in the parsonage of their church and would have celebrated their 39th anniversary in December of 2005. Together they were the grandparents of my three sons and great-grandparents to two boys. A great-grandaughter is on the way but didn't get here in time for them to meet.
Despite the sorrows and hardships in her life, she lived with a positive and optimistic outlook. She was a "can-do" person who believed that, "Where there is a will, there is a way." When something needed to be done, she found a way to get it done, often by doing it herself. When a 4-H leader, Scout Leader, Fundraising Chairperson or Superintendent of Sunday Schools was needed, she volunteered. When someone needed her, she was always there for them, yet she was almost obsessed with not being a burden to anyone else.
She often parented her children by aphorism, some of which are:
"Where there is a will, there is a way."
"If at first you don't succeed, try and try again."
Do what you do with all your might; things done by halves are never done right..
"You ask too many questions. Can't t you just leave well-enough alone?"
" Look on the bright side ."
"There's some good in every person. Look for it."
"Trust, once lost, is difficult to regain."
"People only know you by what you teach them about yourself."
"Character is who you are when no one is watching."
"Love isn't love until you give it away."
"Love people. Use things. And never confuse the two."
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