Happy Birthday, Mama

My earliest memories always include my mother. The smell of roast cooking on Sunday mornings, the beautiful dresses that she let us use to play dress-up, the lullabies she sang to us each night after patiently saying goodnight to all my imaginary friends...lullabies I didn't hear anywhere else...walking downtown in Whitewright, Texas with no fear to get a coke at the drug store, warm cookies, clothes on the clothesline outside, beautiful brown hair and an amazing voice, a coach's wife who never said anything bad about the refs (not in public, anyway). She never filled her plate until she was sure we had all we wanted. Most of the vegetables we ate in the winter were ones she had grown and put up in the summer. Our home was always clean and welcoming...there was always room for one more at the dinner table. She can quote scripture and lives it, rarely criticizes and if she does, it is with the utmost tact and for a good reason, still can prepare a meal for many and never complain, loves unconditionally...to understand this completely, you'd have to know all of us she has loved over the years, Grandma to my kids...Babs to Jack (and only Jack could pull that one off, I think!). Her life was very difficult as a child, yet she never fails to remind us of all the good things that were in her life, and are, still.
My favorite things about her...her laugh...she can crack us all up when she starts laughing and can't stop; her 7-Up cake...not her recipe, but always perfect; her spirit...she lives for Christ; she loves my daddy.



What a blessing you are, sweet mama. Happy Birthday!