Time doesn't stop LOVE!

It has been month since Mom has passed on.  It hasn't been the easiest of things to lose my mother after 61 years.  But I stay busy, at times too busy, just to keep my eyes from leaking as our Japanese brother Hideaki would say.  My sister is especially hurting.  Mom was the rock that we both clung to in good times and in bad.  She was our confidant and our advisor whether we took her advise or not, we still would ask her opinion.  And sometimes she would just tell us her opinion against our will.  There were times that we might have to 'gang up' on Mom to get her to do something.  Those were the times when I instinctively knew the volcano would blow and I'd just say I've got your back Sis!  But then sometimes I would have to be the bad girl and she would be standing behind me ducking too!

Now as we face the daunting task of going through mother's things, and it is decades of things to go through, I wish I could just sit and talk with her again.

Fingering the folds on quilts that she made, I can see her sitting at her old Wizard sewing machine patiently piecing each scrap of fabric.  Her quilts were works of art.  I can hear the whirr of the needle as it popped into the shapes and as she coaxed stitches out of that old work horse to make a beautiful dress for us.  She sewed many Barbie outfits for me and my childhood friend Gwen Hasting as we sat out under a big shade tree in the front yard playing with our dolls.

Going through the multitude of old photo albums I have found photos of Mom as a baby that I never saw before.  I realized that one album was actually my grandmother Sally's album and that I was touching pages she had touched and was looking at her handwriting.  I love how she called herself "Sal".  It has opened a new idea for me into her personality.  I don't have any memory of my Grandmother Sally, she died in November after my first birthday.  But she apparently marked me, I have a love of sunflowers and the color purple and I can grow things and Mom always told me I had her temper and tenacity.  Mom sorely missed her mom.  I found a poem that she wrote about her grief around 1957.  It sums up what I and my sister feel.

Memory

Jimmie Lois Tedford

In memory of my precious mother who passed away November 1, 1954.

My darling mother from me is gone to be with Jesus on His throne.

Her bright smile no more I'll see, 

but always sad and lonely be.

It is said there of the sweetest words in any language are Mother, Home and Heaven.

My mother was both the morning and evening star of my life.  No more can I go back to the homeplace and be greeted at the door with a mother's smile and to hear her say "come in".

Mother was the sweetest word in all the world to me, except the Lord and He is above all.  Oh Mother! the time is so long and lonely without you!

A mothers love is the sweetest thing on earth.  I never could understand why God made mothers and then took them away, but I know He does all things well and someday I'll know why.

Some say God couldn't be every where so He made mothers and as he loves them, He takes them away. There is no sea so deep, no mountain so high as a mother's love for her child.

A loving voice from me is gone.

A voice I loved so well. Why she had to go I can never tell.  I must cast on Jesus my every care for someday I must cross the sea and there with Mother reunited I will be.

In a vision I can see a band of mothers around a great white throne of God.

Please, God! that I may one day join that band.

I can see you dearest Mother,

you were ever fond and true.

Friends don't know how I've missed you,

But in my lonely hours I'm still with you.

There will be roses in that garden in that home where folks are true.

Where I'll find you my loved one waiting far above, beyond the blue.

I can hear those lovely echos,

from that far off shore,

In that garden of tomorrows

where we will meet, to part no more.

I love you MOM.  

Jimmie Lois and Sal