Happy Mother's Day to My Mother

Happy Mother's Day to My Mother

Today's post is an update on a post I did four years ago  Mother has slowed down a bit since I originally wrote this post, but she still attends church twice a week and is feted to lunch with friends on a regular basis.  

We will celebrate her 100th birthday later this month.  She truly is an amazing woman whose life is an example to many.  

Happy Mother's Day to my mother.

She began life as an only child born to parents who were both 40 when she was born.

She grew up in the small mountain town of Woodland Park.

Her mother, a seamstress and a milliner made her beautiful clothes throughout her life.  This hat and coat are examples of her handiwork.

Mother with her pet hen

She had many adventures with her friends.

Mother and her friends on a camping trip

 When my mother graduated form high school, her mother made this dress and hat for the occasion.

Mother said it was made of dotted swiss.

My Mother on Graduation Day

Mother's Graduation Portrait

After my parents were married,

and after my father came home from World War II,

they bought a home in Colorado Springs.

This was my childhood home.

Easter Sunday
Daddy, Mother, holding Carol
Rell & Sally

Mother taught us much about life.

She also taught me many life skills that I have used throughout my life.

She taught her daughters how to cook, clean, and sew.

She read to us.

She taught us to see the beauty of the world around us through an artist's eye

She played dolls with us, and I even remember her playing hopscotch with us.

She went fishing with our dad.

She planted gardens.

She even helped our dad remodel houses.

I remember her in work clothes along side of my father as much as I remember her dressed in her Sunday best.

She wasn't afraid of hard work.

She was the one who did the painting because she was very particular about how a room was painted.  

She made every home we lived in a welcoming and inviting place.

She also made nearly all of our clothes, and they were beautiful clothes.

Many of the clothes we wore, such as our amazing formals, were designs she made up herself after looking at clothes on the rack or pictures in a book.

We'd say, "I want that dress." and then she'd make it.

She made the dress she is wearing below, and of course she made our nightgowns also.

This dress was made of raw shantung silk.  It was actually drapery fabric that she repurposed as dress fabric.  I loved that dress.

Mother reading to me and my sister

 My mother is a beautiful woman.

She has never lost her sense of style.

When I took her shopping last month, she had to get a new bottle of her signature perfume:

Chanel no 5.

I see in the photo below that she has earrings on that she made one year.

I can faintly see the Christmas tree that she hand painted on ceramic before firing them in her little oven.

She only got more beautiful with age.

She is an expert gardener.  These blooms are nearly bigger than she is.

Mother is an artist.

Here is only one of her wonderful paintings.

It is of the Colorado Monument which you can see from her back porch.

This was my father's favorite view.  She painted this for him.

Mother continues to cook her own meals even to this day.

Ten years ago, we as a family all gathered to celebrate her 90th birthday.
We will all gather again in June to celebrate her 100th birthday.

Here she is surrounded by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren in 2006.
All were there on this occasion except for my son Jonathan.  He was in Bangladesh at the time.

Mother is still going strong.

In the photo below, she and I are standing in a peach orchard near her home.

This photo was taken when mother was 95.

She still lives on her own and is very involved in life.

Her blood pressure, pulse rate, and cholesterol are better than mine!

She is a woman of great faith.

Her trust is in the Lord.

She is an inspiration to all who know her.

In the photo below, she is reading a scripture passage to her family on the occasion of her 90th birthday.

Nearly every day I speak to my mother by phone.

She answers the phone with such an upbeat voice that it always amazes me.

She sounds like she did when I was a child.

I will never be able to think of her as old.

She keeps redefining that word for me as each day goes by.

My model for life continues to model to this day.

Now, she is teaching me how to age gracefully.

She is teaching me the importance of independence as one ages.

I'm so very proud to call her my

Mother.

Happy Mother's Day, Mother.

I am so blessed to still have you in my life.