Remembering Annie

Interesting how life brings things back to memory huh?  Today is a special day…in many ways.  It is “ancestor day”..Dia de los muerte , Samhain, Halloween and my late mother’s birthday.  For those who don’t know much about the first two I’ve named, it is a day of remembrance of those who are peeking through the veil..those we’ve loved and lost to another plane of existence.  We honor their memories by telling stories of their lives, remembering them with love and laughter..And there is both of those for me even when things were not so good .  So today, I will tell you a bit about my mom, Annie, who passed  just a little over 3 yrs ago.  She grew up the 3rd oldest of 11.  Her dad did various jobs, railroad, WPA, mechanic, sharecropper.  whatever it took to keep a roof over his family’s head and food in their bellies. Her mom couldn’t even read..left school in the 3rd grade, because in those times, girls didnt need an education.    Annie  married my dad, who was in the Army, when she was 19 and they set out on a course that took our family all over the world, and was a  stay at home mom who helped wherever she could in Dad’s career, creating a home for the 3 rambunctious army brats who filled the house with noise.  She pushed us to get involved in the activities the post usually had for the kids, ball, bowling, scouting.  She made clothes for me and my sister..I have pictures somewhere of some of those dresses.  She taught me how to embroider, crochet and sew..something I use even now.  I sew for a living, have for over 25 yrs now..It’s put a roof over my kids head, sent my girls to college…not a bad thing for one’s ancestor to have taught you hmm?  Annie wasn’t perfect by no means, but she tried to keep the house moving…military houses are notorious for always being on the move.  New posts every year, Dad being gone to some far off godforsaken place a year or more at a time, so she was a single mom more often than not, trying to keep things rolling along smoothly.  While there were differences as my sister, brother and myself were growing up…things changed considerably when our little people came along.   I have 3 kids of my own, my sister has 2, and all of them loved to hang out at   Ma-ma and Pa-pa’s house.  they would go practice ball in the huge backyard, or sit and watch my mom make some costume they needed for school.  One year she made my son a Ninja Turtle costume..It looked like he had been eaten by one, but he loved it, it was totally different than anyone else’s.  she made a kimono for Robyn when she was 4th grade queen and rode on the float for the christmas parade the town has every year…It was amazing, looked every bit like the ones sold in the markets downtown in the small Japanese villages to tourists.  She sewed a turn of the century dress for Mandy, my niece..a mumu for Hef for their Hawaiian day …All these things she did with love for those little people.  They brought their friends there for countless lunches, dips in the pool at band camp summers, went on excursions for their spring breaks with her. She was amazing in her transformation as a grandmother.  I used to marvel at how that happened til I acquired my own little people, then I understood.  Sometimes we’re so caught up in the necessities of the taking care of our kids that we don’t always stop and revel in the small things that are there.  We do that when the little ones come along behind them.  A shame really, because I think that would have been interesting to see what could have come out of doing that.  My girls used to go out to their grandparents house on my mom’s birthday after they got through trick or treating, and  they would  roll her yard with toilet paper(small town fun for the kids ), and soaped her windows, one year saran wrapping my dad’s truck so that he had to take his pocket knife and slide it in the grooves of the door just to get in it,lol.  they were under strict orders to leave my mom’s car alone, and they did…it used to make my mom laugh and my dad roll his eyes, as they usually started the clean up before the girls came back out there and help them and have breakfast with them.  They still speak of those times with laughter , as it should be.  Things got a little stranger still when the kids little people came along.  My mom was there at the hospital when my oldest grandson, Trey Michael, came into the world…She looked at that little face, and “Grammy” came into existence.  She loved that little boy, as she loved Robyn and made sure that she saw him on a daily basis.  The others came after that, Benson, Alexandria, DaKota, Graycee, Andrue, Braelyn.  She went to their programs, made things for them…the cycle continued until my dad passed , and she grew too ill to continue.  I remember the good times with her today, as it should be.  The positive things are there to make me smile.  Annie didn’t always have an easy life, but she was a strong woman.  It takes that to be an military wife and mom…to still stand in the face of adversity and try to be all things to all people…it’s a difficult task, but she met that challenge head on.  She taught me some valuable lessons, and they made me who I am today..So happy birthday mom…peace and love  be with you.