Mom, as Always, This One's for You

 

My mother, summer 1936 in Atlantic City, age 21

Today is my mother's birthday and she would have been 108. She died in the winter of 1990, too young and too soon. It wasn't sudden, but even being told that the days were dwindling and feeling her strength ebb, she had a number of knitting projects ongoing and the New York Times was still delivered daily. Her optimism had been blunted by many losses, but she was a hopeful person and believed in keeping busy and useful, and that she did. 

My mother taught me many lessons and so often I hear her voice continuing to advise me. She had a wide range of topics from the particular to the infinite. Two that stand out this morning are "Don't buy on margin," from her observations during the Depression to "This, too, shall pass," for just about every other small and large tragedy that might befall me. She was right on those two issues and so much more.

Mom, happy birthday! You are so loved and remembered. Not a day goes by when I don't feel grateful that you are my mother. As she so often said to me, I love you more than all the roses in the world. 

Buttercup and Mom, 1952 

    

I will be blogging sporadically for the next week because I am off on an adventure. I'm going to a few old familiar places and a few new ones. I will be seeing some friends of great long-standing and meeting a few on-line friends for the first time. Excited is an understatement. I will be blogging from my phone. It won't be as polished as my computer posts, but I'll get to keep in touch. 

As ever, thanks for visiting and give your loved ones a hug.

Wedding Wednesday: March 2, 1947

 

My mother's wedding portrait

In this week's Wedding Wednesday we're going back in time to a wedding that took place on March 2, 1947 in Hartford, Connecticut. The beautiful bride is my mother. I rediscovered this photograph during my most recent round of decluttering. There was a smaller framed version on my parents' dresser when I was growing up, but that was over fifty years ago. When I saw it again last month, it was as though I'd never seen it before. 

My parents met in October, 1946. They were introduced by a couple who was friends with both sets of my grandparents. My mother lived in Hartford and my father in Brooklyn. There was no quick interstate highway between the two cities, just the Merritt Turnpike and the Hartford, New Haven and New York Railroad. In the five months between first meeting and their wedding they decided to get married, became engaged and planned a large, formal wedding. No internet, no cell phones and no texts, just the U.S. mail and the telephone to keep the relationship going and put the wedding together.  

Though they'd spent very little time together before they married, somehow it worked. Their personalities were very different, but their values were right in step together. Family and family time together, faith and country were top of the list. They were both voracious readers, books and newspapers, and they were happy to bring me along in the family pastime. We raked leaves as a family, shoveled snow as a family, visited historic sites as a family and loved summer weekends at the Connecticut shore with extended family.   

Even fairy tale weddings and the stories that follow them come to an end. My parents were married for 34 years, until my father passed away in 1981. But like fairy tales, the memories of the story live on, especially in the memory of those who loved them. 

Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad. Your love and your story live on in my memory.    

As ever, thanks for visiting and take good care. 

Happy Birtday, Mom

 

Mom and a very squirmy Buttercup, winter of 1951

Today is what would have been my mother's 106th birthday. She's been gone over thirty years, but rarely a day goes by that I don't think of something I'd like to tell her. Maybe it's a television show I think she would like or time spent with a friend that she knew. Maybe we would be discussing something I saw on the news or a book that I am reading. 

My mother died a decade before computers became a regular part of our lives, but it would have been great to send photos to her and do video chats. But even without computers we found ways to keep in close touch and the phone and the postal service were our connections. I know she would have taken to technology and I'm sure she would have a treasured and well used Kindle next to her knitting on the coffee table.

As I've done so many times in the last thirty years, thanks again, Mom. Thanks for teaching me to cook and bake from scratch. Thanks for making sure I wore my retainers and went to Hebrew School, even when I was not very willing. In the last year I am especially grateful that my mother encouraged me to learn how to keep busy and enjoy my own company. One day when I was about eight or nine during summer vacation I complained that I was bored. To my mother, who was never bored, this was a violation of the Eleventh Commandment, Thou Shalt not be Bored. She gave me the choice of dusting or weeding the lawn. I never complained that I was bored again.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend. I had a great walk in Central Park yesterday and there will pictures to come during the week. What have you enjoyed this weekend?

As ever, thanks for visiting and take good care. 

Happy Mother's Day

“All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” 

Abraham Lincoln

One of the benefits of this time I've spent at home is the opportunity to work on projects I've been meaning to do since I retired almost seven years ago. I haven't gotten to the toughest projects, like cleaning out my closets, but I have gotten a good handle on organizing decades of photographs. I started with the travel pictures and then yesterday I went through most of the family photographs. My goal was to find this picture and any other pictures of my mother and me. I was happy to locate this picture, taken for either Mother's Day 1952 or for my second birthday that summer. Sadly, there were very few other pictures of the two of us, but I was gladly to find several other pictures that  I will be putting together for a framed collage. 

Not a day goes by that I don't think of my mother. She died in 1990, but her presence is always with me. She's been in my thoughts even more often during the last few months. At moments when I'm troubled, I think what would my mother do? She wasn't especially sympathetic to complaining or the idea of boredom. In this time she'd be cooking, baking -- she was a fabulous baker and never saw a recipe that looked too difficult. She would be reading, knitting and talking to friends and family on the phone daily. I know she would have enjoyed streaming movies and television shows and learned to use Zoom as well. I can hear her advising me, her often too impatient daughter, to take advantage of the time. She wouldn't have minimized the illness and job losses, but her advice to me would be to use these precious days well. Of course, she would be right, as usual.  

As always, I say thank you to my mother and wish all of Buttercupland, near and far, a very happy and healthy Mother's Day. Enjoy this precious day. We will only be given May 10, 2020 once and that once is now.  

As ever, thanks for visiting and take good care. Much love, today and every day!

Memories in Black and White

 

My mother, circa 1935

 

If my mother was still alive she would have been 104 last Thursday. But she passed away in the winter of 1990, barely 75. Many years ago she tossed photographs of her life after high school in a desk drawer. I'm sure I've seen them before, but while looking for another photograph I once again came upon these pictures of my mother and her friends enjoying life in Hartford, Connecticut. My mother is the young woman in the center of the photograph in the floral blouse.

 

 

Again, my mother and friends are out and about. While I don't know where the bicycle picture was taken, I'm reasonably sure that this picture was taken in Elizabeth Park in Hartford. This was one of our favorite family places, whether it was for ice skating in the winter or visiting the beautiful rose gardens in the summer, we spent a lot of time here, and all happy memories. My mother is on the far left in this picture, wearing the floral dress and elegant hat.  

 

 

This picture looks a little later. My mother and friends look more mature and beautifully dressed. My guess it's in the early 1940s. The depression is over and though sadly, the war has started, everyone is employed. My mother spent the war years working for the Department of the Navy, which was one of her favorite jobs.   

 

Once again, it's happy birthday to the laughing, beautiful woman who became my mother. I am a very fortunate and grateful daughter. Mom, you're always remembered and always loved.

 

Happy Birthday, Mom

My mother on her wedding day, March 1947

 

I always know what day of the week it is, but I don't always note the date. So it was probably sometime late in the morning when I realized yesterday was October 11. It would have been just another day in October, except October 11 is my mother's birthday. Born, just after the start of World War I in 1914, she would have been 103 this year. 

 

My mother died in the winter of 1990, so there haven't been birthday celebrations in a long time. Sometimes it seems that my mother has been gone for decades -- and she has -- and the pain of her passing has quieted and is dormant. But on other days, like today, the pangs of missing her are vibrant and very much present. My feelings tonight are a mix of sadness and gratitude. Sad not to have had more years with my mother and grateful for the good times and legacy that I was given.

 

Thanks, Mom, for home baked cakes and teaching me how to bake. Thanks, for infinite trips to the library and museums and winter afternoons at the Y in Hartford for swimming lessons. Thanks for a million memories. You were the best!

 

 



Happy Mother's Day

My mother, Atlantic City, Summer 1936 

In the summer of 1936 my mother was twenty-one. This is the only picture of her on her summer vacation. I don't know who she traveled with -- I assume my grandparents and my uncle -- or how Atlantic City was the chosen destination. The stamp on the back of the picture tells me it was taken by Ritz Studio, Boardwalk, Atlantic City and a note in my mother's handwriting tells me the date.

It's hard to imagine my mother as a young woman. But thankfully I have this photograph. She is smiling and enjoying life and loving her summer walk on the Boardwalk.

My mother is gone over twenty-five years, but not a day goes by that I don't think of her and give thanks that this woman -- kind, intelligent, strong and faithful -- was my mother.

To all who are mothers -- with biological children, with adopted children, with children of the heart -- and to all who are celebrating with their mothers or remembering their mothers, wishes for happy times and sweet memories.

Happy Mother's Day!   

Happy Birthday, Mom

My mother and me, January 1951

 

 

I'm back from a too quick trip to Austin, TX and the wonderful BlogHer Food 2016. I'm still sorting out my thoughts and photographs of the conference, but I promise at least several posts on the conference, Austin and the food of Austin. Definitely the coffee of Austin will be featured. But tonight Yom Kippur -- the Day of Atonement and remembrance -- begins and today is my mother's birthday. I'm going to delay my posts on Austin and focus on remembering.   

 

It's hard to fathom that my mother would be 102 today. She died twenty-six years ago, but her voice goes through my mind often. I no longer reach for the phone to call her, but I think of things throughout every day that I'd like to share with her. Alas. I can't in person. 

 

Once again, today and every day, I remember my mother with so much love. I am a very fortunate daughter.

 

Happy Mother's Day

In an era -- Winter, 1951 -- when pictures were more of a luxury

 

 

Here I am, squirming away in my mother's arms. I'm six, or so, months old and my mother and I are in my grandparent's yard. I was supposed to be the first of several children, but the others never came. My mother always said, "I thank G'd for my one." Today, twenty six years after my mother died, and every day, I thank G'd for my mother.

 

Happy Mother's Day to mothers, to aunts, to godmothers, to mothers of fur babies and to all who mother and love.  

Happy 100th, Mom

I think I've always enjoyed all things historical, even before the first time I heard the word history. I'm not sure when that was, but I probably wasn't even in school yet. My parents liked visiting historic sites and we started with Sunday afternoon car trips in Connecticut. So it's no wonder that I like to write about historic commemorations, whether it's the 350th anniversary of New York last month or the 150th anniversary of the Ringstrasse in my last post.

But this commemoration is intensely personal. My mother's 100th birthday would have been last week on October 11th. My mother will have been gone twenty five years next February, but October 11 is still very special to me. There are things my mother made me do -- go to Hebrew School, wear my braces and get flu shots every year -- and things she encouraged me to do -- say prayers ever night, read for fun and try things even when I was scared to do them. I am grateful for all of these things and a thousand more. Thanks, Mom, and happy birthday. You were the best!

Buttercup and Mom, winter of 1951

I've got some other great pictures of my mother and I hope to start scanning them in as soon as I get my new printer up and going. It arrived yesterday and I unpacked it, but today was too busy to spend the time I needed to get it set up. I've found that doing anything setting up the computer doesn't take twice as long as I thought it would, but three or four times as long. Slowly I seem to be getting where I need to be with my new equipment and I hope to have everything done that I need to do by the end of October. 

I had a terrific time at the 150th anniversary of the Ringstrasse and I will post the photos next week. I leave for Providence tomorrow morning, but I hope to do a few posts with my phone over the weekend. I'm so hoping for some great New England foliage. The leaves here are starting to fall of the trees, but there's not much bright color to be seen. Rhode Island, please don't let me down. 

Busy day today. I had my two-week followup with my coach at the gym, had my hair cut and my nails done and a dozen other little errands. Now I've got to get packing. I leave for the train at 7:30 and my retiree schedule isn't used to early rising. 

As always, thanks for visiting and take good care.