Here's to My Mother, Madam Queen - MOTHER'S DAY, May 12, 2013

Mother of 4, wife, Administrator, Teacher, Community Leader

At 67 years, I am fortunate to be able to look back on years past and look forward to times to come due to the special "time-released" fertilizer with love given while I was growing up at home and when I left home, thanks to the tutelage of my Mother.

I think so often of the words my Mother, Ms. Jeanette, Madam Queen, so often shared with me (the oldest) and my other two sisters and my brother.  I think about how she would say, "just keep living, you will see".  I think about how she sacrificed for our well-being. How she shared love and expectations to set our foundation. How devoted she was to her parents and their quality of life.  How she gave to her fellowmen. How she supported her family church and her husband's church with leadership and service.  How she provided a support to her husband, our father.

A woman with broadness.

She commuted 56 miles (round trip) to the school she taught in.  How she laid down the laws of discipline and expectations for us to behave and do our chores for the house.  How excited we were to see her come home each day.  How she would bring us gifts.  Gifts that sometimes consisted of a "stick of gum".  We were so happy to get the chewing gum.  Today, that seems so interesting that we were so happy to receive "one stick" of usually "Juicy Fruit" gum.

How doing light moments while listening to the radio she would dance and pop her fingers.  She loved B.B. King, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Diana Washington, Ray Charles, James Brown, and Billie Holiday to name a few.  Often she would tell jokes, talk about her day and laugh.

As a sports enthusiast, she listen to the radio at night for "her ball boys".  They were baseball teams.  I think the ones she listen to the most were out of Chicago and St. Louis.

She was also a tenderhearted woman, so she would sometimes cry and we - her children, would share the moment together.

Another side that told of her upbringing related to expectations.

She was a woman of high principles, a devoted Baptist and deeply committed to family.
She expected no less with/from her four children.  Every Sunday, we were off to church - sometimes all day because we would attend morning and afternoon events.  Since my Mother was a speaker, she would often be the guest speaker at the afternoon events.  That automatically meant that Mother would at the last minute labor over her speech.  A time we all witnessed during her practicing.

Each one of us was expected to get an undergraduate degree.  One of her greatest feelings that was voiced to us, "I am proud all four of you got your head fixed with a degree." 
She would then say, "I saw that all four of you graduated from college."  "Not a one of you can say, she did not help me get my degree."

To the high level of greatness she put on Motherhood.

She would so often tell us about how proud she was to be our Mother.  How proud she was to have all four of us.  And because we had her blood in us, we could not do certain things.  She came from a large family of  8 brothers and sisters. She loved her Mother and father, she was her Father's favorite.

She was a proud lady to be a Mother.  She was 25 years old when I came along.
I was 37 when my daughter Yvette came along.

Happy Mother's Day Mama!

and

Happy Birthday to all Moms
Mary Glass