A Birthday Party in Heaven, Saturday, January 25, 2014

There is a Birthday Party in Heaven today!  I KNOW there is laughter and some of those people in Heaven are thinking...WHAT is going on!  ALL of Mother's Brothers and Sisters are there with Daddy and all of HIS brothers and sister and Most of all, Mother is with HER Mother...WOW...I bet IF they could feel PAIN in Heaven, and we are assured that they CANNOT, their sides would be hurting from all the antics!

Today would have been Mother's 82nd Birthday...She had a VERY FULL life...A marriage of almost 52 years, three children and friends too numerous to count!

Friends were so important to Mother...

I think most of us on Facebook have seen the three kittens who are in a picture and ONE of them is acting goofey...and it says "EVERYONE has one of those friends"...WELL, that was Mother in this picture...she CLAIMS she was looking at a 4-leaf clover...yeah, right...This was taken on May 29, 1947, when Mother was 15...it is funny to see the picture of me in the post a few days ago when I was 15...LOL...In this picture is back, left to right:  Martha Ann Pope, Betty Rawls, Jean DeCoursey, Lynda Dunn, Mary Sanford  (mother's twin), Shirley Weaver (to the left of mother)...Mother, Annelle Roe, and Sarah Armstrong...they were ALL the best of friends...It is fun to see your mother as a silly little girl...JUST like me...

 This is Mother on her honeymoon.  They went to Goodlow (I have no idea how to spell it) Oklahoma to visit Daddy's distant family.  It was the first time that Mother had traveled and she got homesick...she said she longed to be back home to see the TREES!  This was in July of 1951 when Mother was 19...this was at a hotel somewhere in Arkansas...I can't read the name--something similar to Walrond ? hmmm...I guess I could be REALLY good and google it...naaaaaa...LOL

 

This was taken about May of 1956...Aunt Mary, Uncle Doyle, Momma and Daddy...Oh dear me, Mother...those GLASSES!  ugh...CAT WOMAN!!  

Momma sitting on our front porch around April of 1962...hmmmm....I WONDER if she knew that she would have a SWEET BABY GIRL born in October??!! She was 30 in this picture...

Mother had on the back of this picture:  Mrs. Robert Fletcher, 32 years!  WOA...LOOK at that hat!  I KNOW she made it and I PROMISE it matched PERFECTLY this dress she made...look at those gloves...Oddly enough, I think gloves are pretty cool...;)

This is Mother (61), Mary (61), Sybil (71), Becky (74) on November 24, 1994...The four sisters! Mother and Aunt Sybil looked more like twins that Mother and Aunt Mary...Aunt Sybil LOVED to tell about coming out of the funeral home one day and a man stopped her and said, "Woa...slow down and say HI...you don't KNOW who I am, do YOU..."  Aunt Sybil, without missing a beat said, "YOU don't know WHO I AM...I'm Sybil and NOT Martha."...LOL...

The grandchildren were the LIGHT of Mother and Daddy's lives...They didn't become grandparents until they were older...my oldest brother dropped the ball on HIS responsibilities...One night, Mother, Daddy and I were sitting around the table and they were bemoaning the fact that they did NOT have any grandchildren...on and on they went when FINALLY, I put my fork down and said, "SO, IF you want Grandchildren, I can go and get you a GRANDCHILD"...DEAD silence fell at that table!  NO more talk about them wanting to be GRANDPARENTS that night...This is my oldest brother's oldest child, Alexis and the middle child's youngest, Kendall...Kendall is 13 days older than Alexis.  This would have been around 1995.  Not many days went by that Mother would not quote Kendall from a visit she made to Seattle to visit him when he told her, "Gramma...You can do it ANY HOW you want"...She was in LOVE with them!

These are two of the same people that were in the first picture that I shared of Mother and her friends, Miss Betty Rawls Alley, Miss Lynda Dunn Teasley, Helon Ruth Bridges, Betty B Woodward and Momma on a "girls" trip to Red Boiling Springs on October 26, 1995...Mother spent MANY hours planning get-togethers for her High School Friends...She was the driving force behind every Class Reunion they had...SHE LOVED her peeps!

 

This is Mother and Daddy holding Alexis...probably around 1995...

This is one of Mother's Birthday suppers...I ALWAYS made her supper for her on her Birthday...This is my oldest brother's wife, Betty, Mother's friend, Miss Stella and Aunt Sybil...Sitting on a bench that Mother worked VERY hard to get in the house...DADDY hated that thing!!  We didn't give big gifts for occasions because we didn't have lots of money, BUT we ALWAYS had our favorite meal for our Birthday.  When I was in college, I drove home all four years and made Mother Spaghetti for supper and then would drive the 2.5 hours back to school after we ate~I did NOT think she should have to cook her own meal...she always seemed SO SURPRISED when I would come through the door...She would often say, "WELL, WHAT are YOU doing here..."  I would kid her and say that I could easily go back...=)  This picture is probably around 1994.  

This is Avis, Mother and Alexis...This was at Daddy's Birthday PARTY on May 24, 1997...HE GOT friend oysters--his FAVORITE meal...I would have to hunt high and low sometimes to find fresh oysters because his birthday was NOT in a Month that had a "r" in it...YEP, that is when we could get oysters in TN...BUT I finally learned to go to a store in the rich part of Nashville and NEVER had problems finding them again!  Avis was one of our dearest family friends EVER...She was like a grandmother to me and oh, how we all loved each other...I BET Holcome and Avis are CELEBRATING with Mother today, too!

T

This is probably the last time that we were all together...Oh, how much Daddy and Mother loved us all...That is my oldest brother, Bob, standing...Daddy is holding Ashland, Mother is holding Alexis, and that is Kaylen and Kendall...What great kids!  They all from what I hear, are good kids...Kaylen is working on her Masters in Memphis, Kendall is in the National Guard, Alexis is in College and wants to do Missions--THAT would THRILL Mother's soul! and Ashland is doing well in School.

This is another picture of Mother at an outing she planned for her Class of 1949...They were at a local tea room and Mother thought it would be fun to wear hats...TRUE to form, some refused to wear a hat...Mother LOVED to have fun!

In Odessa, Texas, June 2001

This picture is PERFECT to show who my Mother was..SHE was ALWAYS ready to go and she always had a smile on her face...This is what we would call her "FUNERAL DRESS"...she wore RED to funerals because she believed that there were things MUCH worse than DEATH to a Christian because she KNEW and BELIEVED there would be ETERNAL LIFE...SHE LIVES!  I KNOW where she is and she is FREE from pain and is with those she loves.  She is skipping down those streets of gold as the fun-loving child she once was and she is soaking in EVERY bit of LOVE that OUR FATHER has to offer...She is RIGHT in her element...

I miss you, Momma, BUT I would not have you here as you were!  Thanks for loving me and my brothers and thanks for ALL you taught me and did for me...I WISH I could have been a better daughter, BUT I am trying VERY HARD to be a better person...I hope you would be proud...

BE SURE to tell those you love that you love them and by all means, NEVER neglect seeing them...YES, you WILL have to make an effort, but it will NOT be time wasted...Blessings to YOU...~charlotte♥