She's still with us, just broke one of her spindly legs in three places.

A single mom, she used to drive in from our country home to work in the city, about 25 miles each way, in a car with a 3 speed, wearing braces.

She's a trooper!

bad cook. She burned Rice-a-roni.

Scorched scrambled eggs.

flattened out grilled cheese sandwiches till they looked like roofing shingles

served us cooked spaghetti covered in canned tomato soup

BUT

At nearly 78, she has more energy than I do. She is always off doing something or other.

And she thinks I'm a hoot and laughs at my jokes.

Oh, and she's a bit of a ditz. Kind of a cross between Edith Bunker and Betty White



PS...me 'n Mom, 1953

No wonder she wasn't a good cook - she looks like a kid!

Great photo! I'd love to have that stove today!

19 years old there

From what I know of her family, she didn't have the best upbringing. Her mom was an alcoholic who died at the age of 33, about three months after I was born.

And yeah...isn't that stove great? It belonged to my grandparents, who passed it on to my parents when they got a new one. Appliances and stuff lasted forever back then. My mom had an old Sunbeam two slice toaster that lasted 20 years. And the oven...geez....it got daily use, between my parents and grandparents for maybe close to 25 or 30 years.

Total liberal, and growing up in the eighties whenever they showed Reagan on the tv she ranted and raved what a disaster he was for our country and how much she couldn't stand him.

Smart woman.

an only child after her older sister died of spinal meningitis at age 8 (Mom was 6) she wanted out - loved to go spend the night with her "town" friends, traded a horse for a bicycle as a teen, married a future university prof, became a stay at home mom/housewife. Excelled at it (I will never live up to her house management skills) but ended up managing the ranch for a few years at the end of her life and she loved it. So she came full circle from ranch kid to world-traveling city lady, back to rancher. Died of breast cancer in '96. I miss her every day.

She buttered bread all the way to the edges of the crusts completely evenly. She cooked mostly from scratch almost her entire adult life. She ironed pillowcases. She listened to EVERYBODY and everybody thought they were special because of that. I miss her every day.

.
.
.
... she swore me to secrecy and told me that, although I had given her by FAR the most trouble of all
her four children... I was also her favorite.
.
S-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h!!!
.
.
.
MiddleFingerMomDad, for all his good qualities, was an insecure genius who coped by belittling and
emotionally abusing all of us in the family. MiddleFingerMomMom asked me if I had ever wondered
why she called me out of the blue so often and actually had very little to say.
.
I hadn't noticed.
.
She said that when she was at her lowest, she would call me (but not let me know) because she knew
that within minutes, I could cheer her up and even get her laughing.
.
What a gift that was (and is) for her to tell me about that.
.
.
Her last "gift"? Beginning of the endstage Alzheimer's when she hadn't spoken to anyone for days -- I
came in for my daily visit and started (as I always did) by asking if she wanted a piece of candy (she
had diabetes AND a strong sweet-tooth, so we kept a bag of sugarfree chocolates and hard candy in
her nightstand).
.
She sighed deeply and shook her head no. I felt really bad -- for her to pass up candy, she had to be
having a REALLY terrible day.
.
I said OK and pulled the chair over to her bed to begin our "talk".
.
She grinned... and the last words she ever spoke to anyone?
.
.
.
.
.
"You BELIEVED me?!?!?"
.
.
.
She cheered ME up and got ME laughing!!!!
.
.
.
Another wonderful "parting" gift.
.
.
.
Right now, I'm smiling and tears are pouring down my face. Good thing I'm not in the library.
.
.
.

I have a tear in my eye, too--lost my father to Alzheimer's.

that's really the best story!

And yes...my eyes are wet, too. Must have gotten something in them.

did the new york times crossword in ink. could kick your ass at bridge, i don't care how good you think you are.
raised 7 kids and a drunk husband.

been gone for 7 years now.

sweet, kind - had friends of all ages - a Dem til death- (when she found out she was dying told me to get her absentee ballot started the next day- and had me help her fill it out and went with me to drop it off right away) said she'd vote booosh out if it was the last thing she ever did...........I love you and miss you mom

Mom always wrapped the nicest Christmas gifts and made the best Easter Baskets.

and a wonderful and loving parent

Gone 9 years now. I miss ya Mom!

It was getting pretty serious, but unfortunately, religion was an issue (Eddie is Catholic; my mom was most definitely not).

Mom was a screamin' liberal, followed politics very closely (she was heavily into the Watergate scandal), and only voted for one Republican presidential candidate ever (Eisenhower).

It's a shame things didn't work out with Eddie. I would have had the opportunity to live in some cool places, and my dad would still be alive!

My brother and I text each other back and forth using expressions that our mom used to use, or just to relate some funny anecdotes. Great for a laugh in the middle of the day (or night)!

Got Eddie Yost mixed up with Dennis Yost...

She played piano in a dance band in the 40s (she can still play at age 82).

She didn't use Baggies until the 1990s - she saved and reused bread bags instead (and also reused tin foil, whenever possible).

She mixed our milk with powdered milk to stretch it between all of us - you could tell because it looked kinda blue where it met the glass.

When socks got too worn to mend, she would sew the top part as cuffs into coat sleeves that had gotten too short, so they could be worn another year.

She had kids enrolled in public school from 1955 until 1986 - and helped with countless projects, costumes, etc.

She taught herself how to cook, but she wasn't very good at it - however, her baking was fantastic, and her potato salad is legendary.

I think I'll give her a call right now...

saw Harry Truman in a motorcade on September 6 1948. He waved at her while she was working at an outdoor market on Joseph Campeau & 6mile in Detroit. She was 14.

She put "I give a damn, I'm registered and I vote" bumper sticker on the family car in the mid-late 1960's. My brother and I were both deeply impacted by that quiet daily act of political awareness. She makes the absolutely best chocolate pudding cake in the entire universe. (check with my brother if you want second verification of this stone cold truth).

If I thought hard, I could probably come up with a few pleasant memories, but since I never had a good relationship with mine, what stands out are the not-so-good memories. Her sisters confirmed to me that my mother's avowed method of raising children was "never compliment them because it makes them complacent." Let that sink in -- never, not one, compliment from your mother. I've tried to do better with my daughter -- compliments, "I-love-you's", approval. I know what it's like to not have those.

I'm glad you're doing things differently with your daughter. What might seem like a small gesture is huge when it comes fom a parent.

and I still find ways to give her my approval. And I see it between her and her 17-year-old daughter. I think the pattern has been broken.

Now there are a few bottles of "my" vintage still left

..told the doctor that she went to one too many Led Zepp concerts.. and she was telling the truth.

As she and her friends say "they don't make old ladies the way they used to!"

She counts everything; theater seats, bricks and tiles, cracks in the sidewalk. She can't watch a baseball game without keeping score and can't shop without crunching price per pound or whatever.

An octogenarian with a degree in mathematics, she hit her stride when she got her first computer; she took to it like a duck to water, and was programing spreadsheets in no time.

and is a pretty cool lady. She donated a kidney to me when she was 62 and I was 28.

and Groucho Marx helped her up.

myself in a medical emergency.