Today is the day my beautiful Mother would have celebrated her 100th birthday here on earth! Wow! What a party we would have had!
It is said by some that Abraham Lincoln said of his birth Mother, Nancy Hanks, "All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my dear angel Mother." Well that's exactly how I feel. Now don't go saying ugly things 'cause you're surely gonna rile me up. I know, I know, I've got some things I need to work on and trust me, I'm working on them, but it's nothing that God didn't give me in the first place and that Momma didn't tell me to use to His glory. In fact, both my parents encouraged me to stand up for what I believed in as long as it was honest and lawful.
Momma was a piece of work. No other way to say it. She loved her family, church, piano, laughter and friends. She would sit and play her piano all day long for you if you ask her to. Oh, and as a side note, she was a hairdresser or "beautician" as she called herself. She loved to make people look pretty or "feel" pretty whichever the case may be.
She sang in the church choirs and was church pianist or organist almost all her life. She took me to Sunday School and Church all my life growing up. She nurtured me, disciplined me and loved me unconditionally. She was the note writer, the card sender, the cake baker, (although she hated cooking and often solicited my Dad to do the baking) the musician, and later in life, the artist, the bell ringer, choral singer, and the poet. She was all over the place doing good for whomever she could until blindness overtook her and her legs could no longer support her. She was a ray of sunshine where there was darkness at the nursing homes playing hymns and leading singing for those who had nothing to look forward to. And then when she moved to a retirement home, she looked like royalty at the antique grand piano at the Hermitage in Richmond, VA, where she softly played the favorites of the elderly souls while they waited for their meals in the beautiful old home. She was adored by everyone who knew her. She couldn't walk or see, but get out of her way, she had her electric wheel chair and she knew every nook and cranny of that huge building!
If I never do another thing in my life, I hope I will be able to touch the lives of as many people through the years as positively as my Mother did.
Happy Birthday Momma! I'll see you when I get there!
Oh yes, and I'm working on it!.......... I owe it to my Mother.
