My mom - Democratic Underground

proud2BlibKansan

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Sun Oct-22-06 09:23 AM
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My mom

My mom died last Monday and this is the picture we used for her obituary. It is in today's paper. They cropped it and just used her head but it is still a great picture of her and I wanted to share it.

Mom was 81 and had dementia. She had been in a nursing home since March. Some of you may have read the threads I posted in GD about her struggle to get registered to vote when she moved to MO. She was still mentally alert enough to want to register to vote and talked all the time about voting for the good Democrats in MO. She absolutely despised dubya. She was also very proud of me for my work with the peace movement and was so excited when I went to Crawford to see Cindy Sheehan and to New York in April for the UPJ peace march. She loved my pictures, especially the signs.

Mom was a lifelong Democrat. One of my earliest memories was knocking on doors for Kennedy in 1960. My mom always worked on campaigns. She also believed in helping the less fortunate and was a lifelong donor to many good causes, especially schools. When she retired, she volunteered in a food kitchen. When my dad got Parkinson's, she helped form a branch of the Parkinson's Society in her city and spent hours at the local office. This picture was taken at a gala she helped organize to raise money for Parkinson's.

My mom was a neat lady. She was a working mom in the 60s, when every other mom stayed home. But we weren't latch key kids. There was a wonderful grandmother in our neighborhood who took care of us at our house. And our grandmother spent a lot of time with us too. Mom rose through the ranks at a big corporation from a secretary to management when she finally retired after 40 years. She also went to college until she had 300 hours credit - all As - but never graduated because she just loved going to school.

Mom also loved to play the stock market and put 4 kids through college and retired a millionaire. She grew up very poor so this was probably her proudest accomplishment. We used to tease her because she was so thrifty. She never bought new furniture. We didn't get a color TV until my dad found one at a garage sale. For many years, Mom bought all our clothes at thrift stores. We got 2 pairs of shoes a year, one for school and one for play. My parents never bought a brand new car until they were retired and we talked them into splurging. And for my entire childhood, they had only one car that my dad drove and my mom paid a co-worker for a ride to work. (When I was very young, I can remember my mom taking the bus to work.) And she and my dad put all 4 of us through private school and college. She was very proud of the fact that she had enough money to take care of my dad and then herself when they got old, and she didn't have to ask her kids to pay for her care, as she and her siblings had to do for their mother.

My mom was the best. Thanks for letting me share her picture. If anyone wants to see her obituary, send me a PM.