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Memories of my mom

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Photo by Krystian Piątek on Unsplash

My mom could do a lot of things well. 


When I was in the 3rd grade, instead of running out and buying new school clothes for me, she made them. She worked for hours, cutting the material and sewing (on her sewing machine) the pieces together to create button-up shirts that looked like they were bought from the store. She even ironed a cardinal onto the upper left corner of the pocket (this was way before anyone had ever thought about stitching an alligator on a shirt), and, of course, I was embarrassed.  I was afraid to tell anyone at school that my mom had done that, until one of the cool kids said that he liked my shirt and wanted to know where I had gotten it. So I reluctantly admitted to him and the crowd that had gathered around to gander at my clothes. "Cool. I like the cardinals." he said pointing, "Where did your mom get it?" I told him the name of the store in the nearby city that my mom had purchased all the material including the iron-on. Before long everyone in school was sporting an iron-on patch of their favorite sports team (and Bugs Bunny which I also had to have) on their shirts. Now you may be saying "Shame on you. Your mother made that with love and you returned her love with embarrassment." and you would be right, but in my defense, years earlier my mom knitted a scarf, hat and mittens for me and I loved them, but I made a mistake because my mom asked me what color I wanted them to be and I answered "Pink". Now this was the early seventies and a boy would get beaten-up for wearing any sort of colors that were deemed girlish, so she only put a small amount of pink stitching in my scarf that was hard to see. A few days later, I got pummeled by an upper class-man for wearing a pink scarf.
Now as I said, mom was good at many things, but, cooking was not one of them. When he wasn't at work, my dad would do most of the cooking. He would tell the story about how when they were first married, she burned a TV dinner on top of the stove because she didn't know that you were suppose to put them in the oven (she admitted to doing this). He even jokingly told my mom that she treated him like a god because she was always offering him burnt sacrifices. My mom would always chuckle and throw in an "Oh dear". But the worst offense that she ever did was her soup. My brother and I called it swamp surprise (that's why I picked the picture of a swamp). It was so bad that I remember spending a Christmas Eve hanging out the car window, throwing up, while on our annual drive around town to look at the Christmas lights. I didn't want to bring my girlfriend over when I knew my mom was cooking soup but my worst offense was when I came home one day raised the lid on the pot and said that I was going to go to the convenience store for dinner and walked out the door. (Yes I got in trouble when my dad got home. Sorry Mom,) But the weirdest thing about my mom was she was an excellent baker. She made delicious cakes baked Alaska and and pies. Even her roasted chicken was excellent. She made a sour dough bread that was to die for. This odd phenomenon confused everyone.
My mom had a beautiful singing voice. She even got offered a recording contract for a gospel record company, but she turned them down because she didn't want to leave her family behind.
Mother's day is next month and Easter is just around the corner which always remind me of my mom. This is the time of the year I miss her the most, so I thought I would share some fond memories that I have of my mother and I know she is looking down at me from heaven with a smile.

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