Remembering Mom

Today, May 22nd, is my mother's birthday.  She would have been 109 years old.  If you are figuring the math, and thinking that I must be pretty advanced in years myself, you should know that my parents were married for twenty years before I, their only child, was born.  Surprise! Surprise!

I was going through a box of old mementos tucked away in the closet, and I found some  photos of her.

I cropped this picture of her from a group photo which I believe was from her church confirmation.  It is probably from the 1920s when she was an adolescent.  Look at that bow in her hair!

She looks quite glamorous in this photo which is probably from around the time she married my dad in 1932 at the height of the Great Depression.

Here she is in the early 1950s with her little surprise bundle of joy.

Here she is with my dad and me on their Golden Wedding Anniversary.  A year and a half later she passed away from congestive heart failure.  Mom long suffered from heart disease.  When I was in the sixth grade she had a serious heart attack.  But she survived and lived to see me graduate from high school and from college and to begin my teaching career.

Happy birthday, Mom.  You are still remembered with love.