Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Mom's birthday

Today would have been my Mom's 86th birthday. The photo above shows her at the age of 18 or 19, as a student at the University of Colorado. That's where she met my dad. She is sitting on the grass, working on a painting. At the end of her sophomore year she left college to marry my dad, who was in the Navy during the war. She always meant to finish her college degree in art, and nearly twenty years later she did.

In those twenty years between she raised my brother and sister and me and taught us to draw and paint and sew and used her talents to create costumes and prom dresses and decorate our house on a strict budget and lead Girl Scouts and Brownies and raise gardens and flowers and sing on long rides in the car and help my dad build a cabin in the mountains. And then she finished her degree and worked as the director of the YWCA where she established an art center and an art festival and a shelter for battered women and a place for people, old and young to meet and enjoy friends and shared interests. She was a friend, a mom, a wife, a grandmother, an advocate, an artist.

I can imagine her at 86 and I still feel cheated that she died before she got to be old. But I am lucky that she was my Mom.

21 comments:

  1. What a remarkable woman. Glad to read about her Terry.

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  2. Beautiful photograph and even more beautiful memories.

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  3. Terry, what a beautiful picture, and it was so wonderful to read about your Mom. You were so lucky to have her.

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  4. What a wonderful tribute. You favor your beautiful mother.

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  5. She was beautiful and talented - and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. She sounds like an amazing woman.

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  6. I love that photo. Your mom was a treasure.

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  7. Your mom was so beautiful - inside and out.

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  8. What a wonderful tribute to a wonderful woman and role model.

    xo

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  9. What Rayna said -- and "Like."

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  10. That's a wonderful photo. You were fortunate to have such a talented mother. You are her beautiful daughter.

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  11. What a beautiful tribute to your mom, and what beautiful memories you have of her.
    Martha

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  12. how lovely she was and how much you resemble her. Wonderful memories to hold onto.

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  13. Brilliant photo and such a lovely remembrance of your mother. Her eyes are so expressive.
    All the best,
    Dana Fisher

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  14. What an amazing Beautiful woman!!! You look like her. So sorry you lost her too soon.

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  15. What a beautiful photo. I loved your Mom. Her talent, her strength, her love of family, her love of friends, her dedication to things good, and especially her delightful senses of self and humor are what always come to mind. We, your friends, are blessed to have had her in our lives.

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  16. What a lovely tribute. I too can see where you get your grace and beauty.

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  17. Your mother was a remarkable woman. It is great to have such wonderful memories of our mothers past. You apparently have acquired all those artistic genes.

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  18. Leigh2:02 PM

    Happy Birthday to a lovely woman both inside and out. How wonderful she was able to share her creative interests with you - and now you're sharing them with your granddaughter. :)

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  19. Just lovely.

    Not to get all woo woo on ya, but I'm sure at some level your mother knows you're carrying on her artistic heritage.

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  20. What a lovely photo of your mom, she was gorgeous!

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  21. I am just getting caught up on your blog after a few crazy months, so this comment is coming late, but I wanted you to know that I was thinking about you, and that your post made me think about my own mother, and about losing her too soon as well. Your mom sounds like a fabulous human being. And what a wonderful photo of her!

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