I’ve never really done a Mother’s Day tribute during my 5 years of blogging. I think now would be a good time to correct that egregious oversight.

I lost my mother in 2008. She was 87 and though her body was failing her, she continued to be blessed with a sharp mind. She was born in 1921 in Elmira, New York. For the last 13 years of her life, she lived close to us so Patty and I could assist her as she progressed to a walker and finally a wheelchair. Otherwise, she lived independently right up until the end.

She was an accomplished award-winning artist. If you’d like to see some of her prized miniature oil paintings, you can read my blog on that fascinating avocation here.

But probably the best way to inform you about her life is through pictures. So let’s do that.

                  This picture is appropriately captioned: “Pensive Betty Jane.”

                                         Well, I’ll “bee”…..ready for Halloween.

                      Always the fashionable one in the neighborhood. (at far right)

                Some quality time with Daddy. He died when she was only 14.

                   She modeled for a big department store as a young woman.

                                                    Official modeling photo.

                                    Her youngest son graduates from college.

                                               Her first photo as “granny.””

                      A four generation “gals” picture with her first great grandchild.

I often think back about the many times I disagreed with her point of view on life. As I protested why she was making me do one thing or another, she always countered with the most irrefutable reasoning: “because Momma says!”  But, as I’m sure many of you have experienced, as one moves through each stage of life, one realizes how often mothers were dead-on correct about so many of those things.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.

Oh, and you were right!!