My mother has written her memoirs and has been after me to write mine. I have been resisting for a while however I am creating Memory Monday to help me along. Come join me with your own memories. Each week will be a different prompt to encourage the writing of your memories. Link your memories and share them with everyone.
Our prompt is: My Mom
My mother was the oldest daughter in a family of 9 children, 2 older brothers, 5 younger brothers and a sister.My mother has conquered a lot of adversity in her life.As a baby she was tiny and sickly with her first operation for mastoid at 6 months of age. At 5 years of age she was hit by a truck as she crossed the road on a red light. She remained in hospital from Halloween until Easter of the following year. This would not be my mother’s only accident as she had a farm accident when she 18 years of age. At the time they gave her 6 months to live, and was one of the first civilians to be given penicillin.
My mother attended school in a rural one room schoolhouse when she could. Often times she was the only girl. At age 11 she left school for a year to raise her twin brothers who weighed less than a pound each at birth. There were no incubators for preemies in 1940s. She fed one twin with an eyedropper because he couldn’t suckle.
There was still no electricity or running water in the house and a year later my mother finally got her wish when her sister was born. Mother completed her education at Baker’s College and moved to the city to find work and left the young ones on the farm. Of course they would eventually come to the city and stay with us.
Mother met my father and they were married in April of 1949. My father proposed to her by saying “she would have to work to help out”. Little did she know then that she would work with him for a very long time.
My mother had been told that she would never have children so it was a surprise to learn she was pregnant with me. She also gave me 3 siblings – 2 sisters and a brother.
Even after we were born my mother suffered from encephalitis and was paralyzed for a while. I remember the dining room was turned into her bedroom. My mother also had several operations and took a while to recover however she toughed it out. Before my youngest sister was born she suffered a stroke.
My mother worked hard to give us a comfortable life. Besides helping to run the family business she is a wonderful baker and her butter tarts are famous. Our clothes were sewn by her when we young and we always had a new Easter outfit. She loved shopping at Eaton’s for the best deals and made sure we had the best shoes possible because she had often gone without shoes when she was growing up.
My mother and I had our struggles over the years because we are both strong minded. She only wanted the best for her children and she made sure we would have a good life. My mother is 5 foot 2 with blue eyes and to this day could pass for my sister.
My mother has overcome a lot of adversity in her lifetime and is enjoying her golden years in a Retirement home where she can get help looking after my father. To this day she still irons his shirts and loves it.
There is a lot more that I can say about my mother and she will be in more of my memories. I value all that she has taught me and helped to make me the woman I am today. Love you Mom!
Next Week’s Prompt: My Dad
My daughter made us a Memory Monday button that you can grab from my sidebar if you want.
Please link up your posts to this continuing linky so we can watch each other’s memoirs develop over this year. Please use the format of “PROMPT – BLOG NAME” so we can follow each week’s writing.
