Dot`sThoughts

Mother`s Day has come and gone. This year it was a harder day since it fell on my Mother`s Birthday. My Mother was born on May 14th, 1904 and my Father was born on March 3, 1903. They got married when my mom was 20 yrs old and my Dad was 21. They married on Christmas day with a double ceremony -- with my mother`s older sister and her to be husband. Looking back, I see a great simularity in my life to my Mothers. I was also 20 yrs old when I got married-- also in a double wedding with a younger sister, and we married on Dec. 23rd, 2 days before christmas. Walt was 25 when we married. We started our marriage with his then 4 yr old daughter.
The following year after our Marriage we had our first baby, my parents also had their first a yr after they married. Two years later my Mom had her second baby, as did I , except my second turned out to be twin boys. Then another two yrs of marriage passed and their was another baby for my mother and also I had another baby 2 yrs after my twins. But thats where we changed. After another 2 years of marriage my mom had me, 2 yrs later was my youngest brother, 2 yrs later, another sister and then there is a 7 year lapse and the youngest sister.
After my third ( twins making it 4), I skipped 6 years before the next one, and another 5 years before my last one.
Still, we ended up raising the same number of children. I was already raising a step daughter from his first marriage, So, under normal situations I would have raised just 5 kids, the twin made it 6 and the step child made it 7 to raise just as my parents did. It is weird how we ended up raising the same number of kids. There were no twins in my parents family till we had the boys. But Walt`s sister had two sets of twins and one of his cousins also had two sets of twins, so they did run in his family. They said his mother was expecting twins when she died with a heart attack when she was just a few months along.
But in the end I raised one more child as the steps biological mother kicked out her son at the age of 14 and of course we took him in.
But our simularities didn`t stop there. My parents had just celebrated their 50th Anniversary the year before my father passed away, and Walt and I had celebrated our 50th Anniversary the yr before he passed away.
It is almost like history repeating itself.
My Mom passed away on May 10th, so this month is flooded with memories of my Mom- She passed away the 10th, was born on the 14th and we celebrated mother`s day on the 14th. Every few years her birthday would fall on Mother`s day as it did this year. So, there were both happy and sad memories for me on mothers Day.
My mother could be stern when it was needed, but she was a loving mother. I had my problems growing up with an older sister and 2 older brothers, plus 3 younger brothers and 1 younger brother, 3 older and 3 younger-- caught right in the middle. my Mother had her favorites- her first son and first daughter, plus whoever was the smallest at the time. I had a father who made us all feel like we were his favorite which filled the spot for me. But, the last few years my mother had first a hip operation, then a year later she had a hip replacement and I was the one there helping take care of her every day till i had her back on her feet walking with a walker. She was 90 years old then and even though I knew she could walk without the walker, I knew the walker was safer so she wouldn`t take another fall. That was when my mother changed in her actions towards me and I felt special.
My Mother was on a Bowling team in her 80`s. She was one remarkable woman. I remember one time when she told me that her mother could crochet, so why couldn`t she do it. I took down some yarn, a pattern and a needle and taught her how. In my home there are still many items that she crocheted for me over the years. She ended up crocheting Christmas gifts for years for all the family, including her many grandchildren. She was still wallpapering her rooms in her 70`s. I went down one day and there she was standing on her stepladder, pasted wallpaper hanging over her head while she climb the ladder. I quickly took the wallpaper and held each pasted section up to her so she wouldn`t need to climb up and down anymore. That was my only time to be helping to wallpaper a room. I learned how, but have never added any wallpsper in my home.
My Dad was the same way, he was still doing mechanical work on cars two days before he passed away just before his 73 rd B., plus he was still doing his own home repairs. I am already older than my dad was and due to all the working with tools, I also had his hand operation, only I had both hands operated on, but who knows, if my father had lived longer he might have also had the 2nd hand operated on for ruptured tendons. My arthritis I inherited from both my parents. growing up, my Dad was my idol, but in the later years I also began to feel the same about my Mom. I consider myself very lucky to have had such wonderful parents. I wish everyone had a loving family like mine to grow up with. Us kids had our normal squabbling over the years, but we knew we would always be there whenever one of us needed the others, and that is still true today.