Well lady Hivers, I'd like to wish my mother's first Heavenly Birthday here on Ladies of Hive. I've refused to do it on Facebook as I can no longer stand fakebook lol. My mother passed away almost 4 months ago on August 14th and well, she was one helluva lady! I was still living abroad in France, and just didn't get back soon enough馃槬
Second one from the left, Lois was one of 4 sisters and 2 brothers. Born on December 5th,1944 in Hardy, Arkansas where she lived her very young childhood in a one room house. And like me, she lived incredible challenges throughout her entire life. She was born with a hole in her heart, and according to the doctors, she should have died by the age of 16. But she didn't. With no medical intervention whatsoever, the hole in her heart healed, and through 2 cancers and 2 heart attacks, she even outlived all of her brothers and sisters馃檹馃挅
Here we are together for one of my visits back home.
Always dancing and prancing, she really had a childs heart馃榾 Twisting and turning to and fro just to give me a laugh and the funniest pic possible馃槀 Here on the swings then up through State Street in Madtown (Madison, Wisconsin)on our way to our favorite fast greek food The Parthenon馃構
She loved eating out and would almost sprint if just for a second to be ahead in line. She loved the Madison Zoo and park and we'd always go there during my visits. Just look at this chick (pun intended)!
But she could get ornery sometimes. Here she's like, "You don't need a picture of me going to the toilet!" Hahaha lol馃ぃ馃ぃ馃ぃ
"A little dip at the pool Ma?", "Don't mind if I do!"
She'd lost her Southern drawl when I was probably around 7 where she'd taken up our Northern love for ducks and spent a lot of her retirement feeding the birds.
And here in what I called, her reading chair which was always surrounded with piles of mail, books, and her favorite log cabin magazines.
We were quite chummy inspite of the distance and childhood difficulties I'd had and mothering difficulties she'd had as well. I'd say we'd both gone through hell and back and both learned to grow because of it.
But her health kept trickling down the pipes and every drug (I say that and not medication), she took would just give her a new illness and missing a large portion of her lympth nodes, she couldn't detoxify on one side. Here she's with all my cousins and their kids a few years later in her 70's.
My mother was born of a half Cherokee, a quarter Irish, and a quarter German mother, and I never knew what my Grandfather's origins were as he passed when I was only 2. She lived through a hole in her heart, her roof was blown off by a tornado when she was visiting Grandma, when she was 5 years old she saw her 6 year old Aunt burned alive by their wooden stove when they were wearing their moms' long white dresses and playing house. She later lived through breast cancer, skin cancer, then 2 heart attacks plus many other health problems like asthma, glaucoma, and was half deaf for half of her life. She dedicated 30 years of her life to taking care of the elderly and was a survivor. And hot damned if that ain't one hellova lady!馃挒 So Happy Birthday up there! I love you and miss you so much馃檹馃檹馃檹
All pics taken by me with various phones as well as my Nikon Coolpic digital camera.
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