Happy Birthday, Mother...Sunday, January 25, 2015

Today would have been my Mother’s 83^rd Birthday.  

Mother was ALWAYS ready to go!

She was my greatest cheerleader and I would often bring WHAT I had painted out in my craft house into the house just to show her so she would go on about how creative I was…sigh…The last years of her life were tough for BOTH of us…while I did the best I could at the time, I STILL struggle to forgive myself for not having been a better daughter to her…I was a DADDY’s girl, through and through, but she was an excellent Mother who LOVED beyond belief…she really did LOVE her enemies and would pray for them… 

As I was thinking about Mother’s birthday, I started recalling her friends that had joined her in Heaven during this past year…Margie and Hoyte Bundy were special friends of ours and we spent many meals together after they moved to our town from North Carolina…They had belonged to the church where the Chrismon Tree was started and were instrumental in helping my church get one started…IF you don’t know about the Chrismon Tree, google it…it is an AWESOME concept of a Christmas tree that is adorned only in gold and white with the various Christian symbols…

Dixie Counts was a special friend of Mother’s and the husband of one of her classmates…he started a GOSPEL night at the Downtown Baptist church in our town and I KNOW there is BEAUTIFUL music being sung by all of them!

 Uncle Johnny Harris, as I called him was Daddy’s childhood buddy.  One of the LAST times that I remember him just STOPPING by to say HI was when I was about 6 and my brother was about 8.  Our 100 year old house was built with a fireplace in every room, but we got to where only 1 fireplace was used, so Daddy would gather starter wood whenever it was offered to him.  This one batch came from a local manufacturer of shoes in our town and they were GREAT pieces of round wood about 2 feet long…my brother thought they would make GREAT Bats…So, he and I were PLAYING, while Mother, Daddy and Uncle Johnny were talking behind us…Brian through the ball in the air and swatted it with the “bat” and then I heard a commotion and I turned to see Mother sitting on the ground…Brian had lost the grip and had cracked mother’s head!  We went to the ER and took care of it…BUT it all turned out REALLY well because we got to stop at the Dairy Queen to get a Dilly Bar on the way HOME!  Mother always said that Brian was the child who always seemed to have “things” that just happened to him…YEP…he is the middle child…LOL…

 Bill Woodard was a dear family friend that I KNOW is having the best time with Mother and Daddy…And with his parents, Jay and Woody…Oh man…what a vision!

I KNOW that my sweet Roamie is there with Mother and Daddy and Mother is STILL feeding him his daily pimento cheese sandwiches…HE was the reason that Mother got out of bed many days toward the end of her life…SOMETIMES he did NOT want to eat the sandwiches, but he was always a trooper and obliged…he was the BEST dog that I EVER had and I miss him, too!!  NEVER did I think this house would hold an INSIDE dog, but Roamie changed that…He would have NOTHING to do with Mother while Daddy was alive because he seemed to FEAR that White headed, red coat wearing woman, BUT when Daddy died, it was as if he KNEW that it was NOW his responsibility to take care of Momma.

All four of Mother’s brothers, her 3 sisters and her Mother have CELERATED today…Mother was a twin and was the BABY of the family…

When my Daddy died in 2003, I decided that I could NOT let every special day be a day of depression because I wanted to HONOR him for his life.  I then tried to start doing SOMETHING for someone else on those special days, even if it was just to tell someone that Daddy loved them…

Today, as I was struggling to go back to sleep after Charcoal’s potty break, I tried to THINK of what I wanted to do TODAY, since I hadn’t yet planned anything special…THIS magnet came to mind since I had painted several the last few days.  NOTHING could honor Mother more than to spread LOVE in her name…SO I wish to offer this pattern to you for the next week (until 2-3-15).  in the HOPE that you WILL paint one and pass it ON to someone…I can’t think of anything better to HONOR the memory of Martha Fletcher…Thank you for being my NEW cheeerleaders…

I envision this pattern used with SEVERAL mediums…it can be stitched…written on paper with colored pencils or markers…made using scrapbook paper…mixed media…SO simple yet the message is the MOST important message in the world!

Either comment below with your email address, or send me an email at:  romaland2.1@juno.com with the message:  LOVE and I will email you the pdf file of the pattern…

Thank you Mother for loving me EVEN when I was a selfish, spoiled BRAT…I miss you and I love you…Blessings to YOU…~charlotte